Tokyo Mew Mew Panic
by LazyAuthoress
Summary: My idea for a second TMM season. The aliens are back. Pudding and Ichigo got themselves in more troubles than they would wish for. Changed from a "M" to a "T" because I'm no longer paranoid!
1. Chapter One: They're Back!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew.**

**Summary: The aliens are back after a year and bring trouble with them. Ichigo and Pudding are in for an adventure. **

**I was very young when I imagined this so, if the plot is weird, sorry.**

**Warnings: Character death, references to yuri/shojo-ai and teenage pregnancy. Use of American ages but Japanese names. Pudding is 15.**

**A.N.: This fic used to be M but I think that it's unnecessary. There will be only two occasions where it might shock you, so… (I'll just give a warning beforehand) **

**Any mistakes you see you can tell me about it and I will correct it (it would be good if you did, so I can improve my English). Thank for putting up with me (deep bow).**

**Chapter 1**

_Time passes by at an amazing speed. Most of us doesn't notice it. We are too busy living our rushed lives. It's rushed because time passes fast. Our lives are too short. There is just too much to be done and we don't have time. And along the way, we forget important things. _

_Time is cruel and waits for no one. It passes too fast for our little bodies to handle. So how do we stop the time? We can't. Time doesn't stop. How can we slow him down? We wait… times slows down for those who wait for something. Like living in an alternative reality... _

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One year. Since Deep Blue was defeated a year passed. Was the world back to peace? No, of course not.

Mew-Aqua allowed the healthy grow of all living beings. But sometimes, it would pile too much and cause an unnatural growth. Those animals or plants would be very scared and try to attack everything in reach. It was now Tokyo Mew Mew's job to capture those creatures and extract the excess of Mew-Aqua. It was a good thing that people had accepted them and would not try to interfere in their work.

And life passed normally for the five girls. They would go to school, work in the Mew Café and live their everyday life. Which included fighting abnormal creatures every other day.

They were living happily. As happy as five girls employed by a slave driver could be. Right? Almost.

Two mews were having an especially hard time. Even the others found that life seemed to be escaping from them. Pudding wasn't in her energetic self. Her stunts diminished with time and she was seen seating around more and more often. Ichigo wasn't hungry anymore and the only thing that would make her cheer up were her dates with Masaya. Ryou tried everything he could come up with to help them but there seemed to be nothing physically wrong with the girls. Their DNA had proven to be too instable to allow a proper study. They seemed to be vanishing slowly.

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"Ichigo." Masaya softly squeezed his girlfriend's waist as he circled her with his arm. "I know there isn't much I can do but… You know you can talk to me, right?" The red haired girl meant to give her gentle boyfriend a reassuring smile, but was so tired that all she managed was a weird failed attempt.

Ichigo knew that everyone around her was concerned at some level. She hated being trouble to her loved ones but lately, everything bad felt worse and nothing seemed to have color anymore. In all this, she had found some relief talking to Pudding. She took some more time to show the symptoms but eventually she reached that point too.

Ichigo knew it was selfish, but she felt better knowing that she wasn't alone.

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Pudding had made a vow early in her life to be a happy and cheerful girl for her brothers and sister, so that they never felt the sadness of their mother's absence. But recently, she was having a great trouble doing so. Sweets seemed to have lost all their sugar and her performances were becoming harder and more tiresome each time. Keeping a smile had become impossible.

Naturally, given her nature her symptoms were, unlike Ichigo's, immediately spotted. Shirogane had barely left his lab in the first few weeks. He was troubled by a possible epidemic among the Mews. But after a few months and none of the others having shown any symptoms, that theory was discarded.

She thought about that reunion weeks ago. The Café was closed that day and she had run into Ichigo by chance. After a bit of talking they agreed that they felt better at work were they had their hands, and minds, occupied. They had been walking a bit when they stopped by the Mew Café and were stunned to see Mint walking inside.

Without any of the others noticing, they sneaked inside and eavesdropped a lot of shocking things.

"I think it's best if they remain clueless about this but…" Shirogane had been leading what seemed like a regular Mew meeting. Zakuro, Mint, Lettuce, Keiichiro and Masaya were present.

The blond fidget a bit and seemed to be having trouble speaking. Keiichiro stepped forward and gently squeezed his shoulder before taking over what Shirogane had been trying to say. "When we were studying Pudding-chan and Ichigo-chan we stumbled upon a horrible truth…" He sighed deeply looking completely miserable. "Pudding-chan and Ichigo-chan… If it keeps like this… they will have less than a year to live. Maybe just a few more months…".

All the agitation and questions inside the lab passed aside the two girls that had left long before.

Did the matter concerned them? They didn't know. Ichigo had said that her mind felt clouded about that kind of thoughts. Pudding didn't knew. But it didn't particularly concerned her. What did was the fact that she didn't. Her brothers and sister needed her. Even if now they had Sensei to help.

And with those thoughts she found herself looking at the starry sky once more.

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The Café was closed earlier than usual. And everyone promised to meet in the park later that night. The gang had been trying to find things to do together. Lettuce said that they should spend time together. They all agreed to fast with her. None knew that the two Mews already knew. They didn't bother to tell. There was absolutely no need.

That night they were going to have a barbecue. Ichigo's parents were being very adamant about her getting out more to get some color on her cheeks and to spend more time with her friends. Ichigo didn't bother to explain them. She had told them about her job as a Mew and understood that they could be very dense sometimes. There was no need to upset them. She was somewhat grateful that Shirogane hadn't told them anything yet. Maybe it was better that way.

Pudding had also told her siblings and Sensei about the Mews. They had all been very acceptant about it. Sensei had been taking care of her siblings a lot more lately and helping Pudding around the house. She practically lived there now! The girl had a feeling that she understood at some point that something was wrong and what it meant. It saddened her but she felt better to know that her brothers were in good hands.

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"Akasaka-san! This is great!" Mint couldn't help drop a bit on her manners when such goodness was involved. Everyone nodded eagerly. Keiichiro had surprised them once more with his culinary skills.

"Ichigo, shall we sit a bit?" Aoyama gently supported the red haired girl. The pink mew nodded meekly letting him guide her to the designated spot. "The night looks so beautiful! And the air… It's so fresh and clean! Nature is definitely good for the soul!" Masaya said, trying to amuse the girl in front of him. The sky? Yes… it was pretty. Ichigo look up eyeing the billions of light spots displayed before her. She had this sense of déjà vu. Lately she had been observing the sky a lot. But tonight… Away from the city lights, the sky looked like a painting. Not a single cloud in sight. Somehow, she was feeling better. Like most of the times she would gaze at the sky.

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Mint wasn't happy about this predicament. In spite everything, the mood was still very dull. "Argh!" Everyone jumped in surprise. Mint magically produced a microphone from behind her and approached Zakuro. "One-sama! Sing for us! Come on! We need to party!" They stared at each other for a while. Zakuro was truthfully astonished and Mint was starting to think she was mad. It was good Lettuce who saved the day, clapping and cheering for Zakuro. Reality crashed down for the purple mew and she quickly reached for the micro.

The night was filled with songs and laughter. Even Ichigo and Pudding were able to have some fun. Even if it was a bit off season they went with karaoke afterwards. Who would guess that perfect Akasaka-san was a terrible singer! It was near midnight when they started packing things.

"Pudding, don't just stand there! Help us!" Mint yelled while drinking her tea and watching the others work. Despite everything, Mint was being very affected by this. She refused to treat her friends differently just for the sake of some months! She thought that acting like normally was the best. Sometimes, just to make Ichigo spark again she would tease them on purpose, like now. She was waiting for Ichigo to yell at her for being a hypocrite, but no such thing came.

The other were used to that type of consideration Mint had towards them and were also surprised when Ichigo didn't answered the blue mew. "Ichigo?" The pink mew was standing behind Pudding, both with their gaze fixed in the firmament as if waiting for something to happen.

Masaya placed his hands on Ichigo's shoulders. "We should be going…" But they refused to move like in a trance. "What should we do Shirogane?" Several options were discussed no to gentle until Lettuce yelped loud in shock. She was staring at the sky, her mouth wide open. They all turned to see what was going on.

The sky was no longer splashed with light dots. Instead, long white strips soared through the night blue. Like if the billions of stars were falling down from their posts.

"I didn't knew there was going to be a meteor shower today!" Shirogane frowned deeply. "I never heard about it either." Keiichiro had also thought it was strange.

But fortunately for both it all ended minutes after without any incident. "My! That was gorgeous!" "Yep! It was super-nanoda!" "Nyan! It was so romantic, ne Aoyama-kun?" The two mews kept talking cheerfully leaving their friends dumb-struck. "Hm… Ichigo, are you feeling okay?" Masaya held his girlfriend's hand looking very concerned, but the red-head only laughed. "You know… I think I never felt so good!" "Pudding-chan… You feel fine too?" Lettuce nervously watched both her friends. "Don't worry Lettuce-onechan! Pudding feels very nanoda!".

Shirogane kept a stern face until they returned to Tokyo and dropped the girls home. Once back in the Café he immediately went to his lab to investigate. Drumming his fingers against the keyboard like a skilled pianist he quickly surfed through the digital information looking for abnormalities. After hours of research he slammed his hands against the poor machine, in frustration. Nothing! Nothing indicated that a meteor shower had just passed them!

"Coffee?" Keiichiro appeared from the shadows standing faithfully behind Ryou. The blond muttered some grateful words before swallowing the hot drink. "I just don't get it!" The older of the two squeezed his companion's shoulder in sympathy. He too felt nervous. "Calm down, Ryou. Anger disturbs logic."

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That morning, Pudding felt better than she did in months. Happily, she greeted her siblings before turning to make a huge delicious breakfast. "One-chan! You look very cheerful this morning!" "Pudding feels more Pudding than pudding-nanoda!" That moment Sensei came in to start breakfast. She was surprised to see the blond girl so merry that day. "Ah, Sensei! Good morning!".

Same was happening to a red-head in the other side of Tokyo. "I heard the bell! It's Aoyama-kun! I'll be going now!" The cat girl chewed down her fourth toast before running to the door. Her parents only waved her in shock.

The couple strolled through the streets, Ichigo humming joyfully. "You look great this morning, Ichigo!" And more healthy, Masaya added in his mind. The pink mew smiled brightly before skipping eagerly to the Café.

Everyone watched in awe as the two girls changed into their work outfits. It felt like the last few months had just been a nightmare. Lettuce sighed deeply. "This is all very strange." Mint just shrugged her shoulders but Zakuro appeared to be tense as well. "I wonder were Shirogane is?" "…Here." The six coworkers in the Café turned at the voice behind them. Ichigo started screaming and pointing. "Ghost!" The blonds eyebrow twisted in annoyance. "Who's a ghost?".

Everybody could tell that he had put an all-nighter. His skin looked paler and huge black circles hung under his eyes. He looked like a hollow soul. "Oh, My! Are you okay?" Lettuce hovered around him throwing concerned pleas that made the blond smile kindly.

"Unfortunately we were unable to anything about last night." "Akasaka-san!" Everyone chorused. The brunet's appearance wasn't better than his boss. "It was like it didn't existed!" Shirogane huffed in frustration. "The problem with humans is that they never see the most obvious things!" "But that was what worked in our favor anyways wasn't it!".

Slowly, as in a trance, the Mew team turned to watch the newly arrived visitors than floated above their heads. "Of course, if there is no evidence of something's existence, it's most safe to assume it doesn't." Pudding was the first to recover from the shock and quickly bear hugged Taruto. "Taru-taru! You can't imagine how much Pudding missed you!" Instead of pushing her away as per norm, the alien looked pleased by her reaction. "I think I have a very close idea." He chuckled awkwardly.

"If it never existed what was it?" Pai landed in front of the blond, who was very much shorter than the alien. "A distraction for humans like you. Thanks to it, we managed to land on your planet, perfectly undetected." Shirogane was opening his mouth like a fish out of water lacking a good comeback.

Ichigo noted that Kishu hadn't spoken a word since he arrived. He looked very depressed and for a moment she had the strange need to hug him. What! Bad Ichigo! What was that! She was dating Aoyama-kun!

Stepping forward, Zakuro cleared her throath. "And so… Why did you come back?" She wasn't one to stretch unnecessary talks.

Taruto softly dethatched himself from a very sticky Pudding before turning to Pai. "Tell them!" The tall alien looked disgruntled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hm! It's your problem. Solve it yourselves!" The brat puffed his cheeks in annoyance. "We'll have to take the crap later! Besides! You explain things better!" Eyeing a more and more depressed Kishu from the corner of his eye, Pai finally sighed in defeat. "Fine…".

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**A.N.: Enough for today. Read the next chapter to know the extension of problems Ichigo and Pudding got themselves into.**

"_Taruto softly dethatched himself from a very sticky Pudding before turning to Pai." _**Try reading it aloud, it sounds funny. A **_**the **_**before **_**Pai **_**would change the all meaning. And now I'm hungry! Bye Bye for all of you who managed to reach this far! See you soon!**


	2. Chapter Two: I married you?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or Arthur and the Minimoys.**

**A.N.: Let's find out how many of you are willing to stick with me! And yes… the kissing thing was from after I read Arthur! I was young! I thought it was a great idea! (whispering) please don't sue me. **

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**Chapter 2**

"_Tell them!" The tall alien looked disgruntled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hm! It's your problem. Solve it yourselves!" The brat puffed his cheeks in annoyance. "We'll have to take the crap later! Besides! You explain things better!" Eyeing a more and more depressed Kishu from the corner of his eye, Pai finally sighed in defeat. "Fine…"._

The purple haired alien grabbed a nearby chair and promptly made himself comfortable. Everyone sweat dropped but decided to follow his example. The other two aliens let themselves fall in the floor with Pudding mimicking Taruto and getting closer to him. Mint and Zakuro took one table while Ichigo and Masaya took other. Keiichiro took a seat a bit further behind, near the kitchen door. Lettuce brought her chair closer to Shirogane, who in turn refused to let his guard down and preferred to stand.

Watching the group in front, Pai straighten his back and began. "Every specie's has its own unique way of mating. Generally, it develops in order to allow a better development of the specie. For example: some species have one male impregnating several females, others favor a single partner for life. Humans are confusing in that manner. His hard to determinate if they have only one partner, several, or if that partner is changed over time." The aliens fidgeted on their seats, while the earthlings tried to understand what the purpose for all that talk was about. "Apart from that… When we are recruited to work in this type of missions, others went in search of new planets before us, we are usually fairly young. Normally very young orphans. Now a days, things are different. Our planet was successfully recovered and we returned to the ancient ways. But I'm getting sidetracked! There were things we weren't taught. Or that I thought that they…" He gave a quick glance at his companions. "… didn't really needed to know. They were irrelevant to the mission. And that got them into trouble. Somehow… it was also my fault. I'm sorry." He bowed, equally followed by the other two.

Shirogane was tapping his foot on the floor. What the hell had any of it to do with their return? And it was exactly what he voiced.

Pai looked unfazed by his anger. "I was getting to that. If you weren't able to guess the problem yet… But first I must explain how **we** mate. We have one partner for life and we mate with no other. When we mate, a unique mental connection is made. Among other things, it keeps life essences connected and allows the transmission of information. Those were some of the advantages this type of mating gave our kind."

"What does this have to do with us?" Massaya could feel his girlfriend tense at every word. "It's quite simple. To consummate our mating, or in human words, to "marry" someone a simple act is needed: a kiss." Silence filled the room for what seemed like long hours. Then suddenly Ichigo seemed to wake up and started screaming and freaking out. "W.H.A.T! Are you saying Kishu is married to me?" Quickly she covered her mouth. She really hadn't told anyone about how her first kiss had been stolen. "Ichigo? What do you mean by that?" Massaya was looking absolutely dejected. "Technically, you are married to him, you know!" Taruto interjected.

Acusations and yelling followed and a fight almost issued before Shirogane was able to get control of the situation. When things looked calmer, Pai turned to Kishu. "Don't you have something to say to Momomiya-san?" Sadly, Kishu got up from his spot. He hadn't moved an inch despite all the disorder. "I'm sorry koneko-chan. I didn't really knew what I had done." He sighed deeply. "And now I'll pay the consequences. I know you like Romeo there so… I won't do a thing. It hurts me a lot, because on my eyes you are mine. I guess that explains a lot of my earlier actions but… And I really can't return to my planet now so… I wanted to apologize properly." His head had slumped down so much that his gaze was now perfectly parallel with the ground. "Kish…" But Massaya didn't let Ichigo finish. "What do you mean? Why can't you return? Won't you suffer more here?" But it was Pai who answered him. "I never got explain everything… I told you about that mental connection that it's formed, but it has a pretty strong physical presence really so that the two parts can always find each other. It can stretch and bend; but… like an elastic, if stretched beyond its limits… breaks." Pai had all human eyes on himself. "…Breaks?" "What happens if it breaks-nanoda?" The purple alien's expression turned grave. "… Both parts die."

The Café was silent for a long time. Ichigo was the first to recover from the shock. Stepping further she stood in front of Pai. "How do I know if it will break?" The eldest alien looked genuinely surprised. "I think you already know the answer to that! Think about it! You and Kishu were apart a year, millions of years light from each other! You must have felt some type of symptom!" Surprisingly this seemed to leave a very bright smile on the girl's lips. "That's just it? So everything's fine now? Kishu only needs to stay close from now on and everything will be fine!" The aliens seemed taken aback by her sudden cheerfulness. "… Well… Your _Verbindung_, the connection, still needs to heal, but..." But Ichigo was no longer listening. Quickly she scrambled to explain her boyfriend why she had kept such a secret from him.

"Ano… Pai-san…" Lettuce timidly turned to the shocked alien. "Why has Pudding-chan been demonstrating the same symptoms?" Pai's explanation was cut by Taruto rant.

"Hey! You ruined the surprise! I wanted to tell her!" "The me what, Taru-taru?" Pudding was looking very excited with huge bright stars in her eyes. The small alien blushed and nervously scratched the back of his hair. "Well… you see… I know you have a fiancé but… that day under the dome…Everything was falling on top of us… and… and… '…" Taruto was talking so fast that almost all meaning was gone but the yellow mew seemed to understand and quickly ended his tirade by giving him a small peck on the lips. "Oh, Taru-taru! Pudding feels so happy-nanoda!" "… Re-really?" "Of course! Pudding never liked Yuebin very much either way-nanoda!" For a moment the small alien looked dumb-struck but a victorious smiled slowly made his way into his face.

"Pudding-chan… is this really okay?" The other mews looked quite displeased by her quick acceptance. The small mew eagerly nodded. "Pudding is sure-nanoda!" Taruto awkwardly rubbed his when he suddenly remembered something important. "Whoa! Wait a moment! We're doing this backwards!" Unclenching himself from Pudding's crutching huge teleported away. Sighing, Pai also teleported.

"Where did Taru-taru and Pai-onichan go-nanoda?" But Kishu didn't answer her. He still looked quite depressed, seating away from everyone in a corner, a dark aura surrounding him.

"Here they are!" Taruto and Pai returned, alongside with a huge pile of objects. "Taru-taru! What is all of this-nanoda?" Taruto stuck his chest out very proudly. "They're gifts for you! Normally, I would propose, give them to you, court you and if we decided that it was fine, we would finally "marry". Right, Pai?" Taruto turned to the elder in confirmation. The purple haired alien nodded gravely.

Pudding quickly searched through the pile of presents. It consisted basically of many strange exotic fruits, some rolls of light colored and almost transparent fabrics, what seemed like golden stemmed glasses and jewels. Most of it were craved in precious stones. The five girls were drooling and had shiny eyes while looking at them.

"Get away! These are Pudding's-nanoda!" The yellow mew growled protectively in her monkey ways. The other mews hissed and threatened her with their claws but remained away.

With the female a little more calm, Pudding turned to hg Taruto once more. "Thank you-nanoda! It's a shame though… When Pudding pictured her wedding she thought that there would be a big party. Alien wedding is not the most cheerful one-nanoda." The small alien titled his head in confusion. "Wedding? You mean the wedding party? Of course we can have one!" Everyone was confused. "But aren't you married already? You said that you married by kissing." Pai had seated once more and had been contemplating the world outside the window, but immediately rose at the question. He had already accustomed to be the one to explain things. "Indeed. But considering how easy our mating his done, it certainly isn't uncommon to have wedding parties after the marriage."

"Pudding want's a big altar! And music! And food! And her family-nano-nanoda!" "What is a human wedding like?" While Pudding quickly explained, Shirogane and Pai discussed their living arrangements. "The ship?" "Yes. There is plenty of space in there. We can keep living there as long as needed."

Ichigo was feeling somewhat conflicted. She was happy that Kishu wasn't going and try to interfere in her love life anymore, but she also felt sad for Kishu. She knew that his love for her was as real as Aoyama-kun's and he was also suffering from the connection, Verdi-something! "Ichigo. Is something wrong?" The pink mew smiled at her boyfriend constant kindness. Masaya smiled back and pulled her close for a kiss. She closed her eyes readying herself, almost feeling his taste on her lips when she suddenly pushed him softly. Aoyama was looking confused a bit hurt. The redhead signalized the bulge near the wall whose dark aura kept growing. The boy understood. It would be very cruel.

"We figured it!" "We figured it-nanoda!" The two youngsters suddenly screamed stealing all the attention. "What did you figured, you oversized monkeys?" Mint angrily inquired. "Hey! We decided how we are going to do our wedding! We mix things a bit!" The two yelled at the same time.

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**A.N.: Took me a bit because my computer broke down. Next time we'll discover how to have an alien wedding. **


	3. Chapter Three: Pudding's wedding

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or its characters.**

**A.N.: I'll dedicate this entire chapter the Pudding and Taruto's wedding. Just a little sneak peek into the aliens' culture. **_**Gossypium**__** filius**_** is not a real plant, it's an alien plant. **_**Gossypium **_**comes from cotton and **_**filius **_**comes from hibiscus, so you can have an idea of what the flower would look like.**

**Took my time to write this fic again, because I had some more popular ones that needed attention. Thank you Anonymous for your review and I hope that you keep reading. **

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"Wow! It's big!"

Lettuce, Ichigo, Pudding and Taruto were currently looking up churches. Pudding was trying to show the alien what an altar looked like, but they weren't managing to come to a consensus. None was alike the other. Altars could be simple, golden, ugly, imposing, grotesque, with too much figurines, shiny, gray, big or small. It was starting to make their heads hurt.

"Why don't you just draw what you have in mind? I'm sure we can come up with something better than this!"

"Good idea Taruto-kun! Pudding-chan, draw one!"

Taruto teleported a sketch book and some pencils. "Whoa! Taru-taru is pretty useful-nanoda!" The little alien scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, while Pudding begun her sketch.

"So, Taruto… How is the dress coming along?" Ichigo still felt kind of bad talking to the aliens or more specifically, the happily-going-to-marry couple. It made her feel that she was a villain by rejecting Kishu. "It's going well. The _Gossypium__ filius_ are about ready to be picked. Soon I'll be able to spin the thread and make the fabric. I already thought about the design so I can start on it as soon as the fabric is done." Pudding had explained them that in alien culture, the groom would be in charge of the wedding preparations and the dress. Normally the bride could still refuse to marry him if he didn't have good taste. The bride's job was to prepare the food and the cake. And it wasn't a small job, since usually many people would come.

"Done-nanonanoda!"

"Let me see!" Taruto picked the sketch book from her and studied the drawing. "I think I can do something like this!"

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Pudding took a deep breath before daring to cross her own doorstep. This was it!

"Hanacha, Chincha, Lucha, Honcha, Heicha, Sensei! Tadaima!"

"Welcome home, One-chan!" The usual loud cheering welcomed Pudding.

The blonde girl happily hugged each of her siblings before awkwardly doing the same to Sensei. Even if they liked each other very much, their relationship was still a bit uneasy.

"Welcome home. You're just in time for dinner!"

"Dinner!"

"Dinner!"

"Dinner!"

"Dinner!"

"Dinner!"

Pudding laughed at their chorus and allowed them to pull her to the table. Ever since her change of mood, they kids seemed to have committed to keep her mood up. They had promised to behave better and help more in the house chores.

Loudly, everyone tried to tell Pudding about their day, all at the same time when Sensei saved her; bringing the delicious _Mapo doufu_.

"Itadakimasu!" Everyone cheered.

As always, little manners were shown as the food disappeared from the table. Half way through, the yellow mew put down her chopsticks and turned to her family.

"Everyone! Pay attention!" Six pairs of eyes were laid on the young girl. "I have something important to tell you all…"

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"How is it going?" Kishu bent down to look at the younger alien and the hard work he faced.

"I'm almost done with the thread… Thank you for your help with the dye. The color turned out very nice."

The small brunet was busy spinning a whole lot of fluffy balls that had previously been picked from the respective flower. Grown with Taruto's help and irrigated with the dyed water; the big cottonish fluff balls presented now a very light yellowish color.

"No sweat! It's good to be busy…" The green haired alien sighed loudly before plopping down next to his comrade watching him work. He wasn't really interested but he wasn't uninterested in it either. He just wanted something to focus on.

"Say, Kish! Since you have nothing to do now, why don't you go pick up some seeds I need?"

With the perspective of a new mission, the sad alien perked up and some minutes later he was already flying around the town looking for the designated plants.

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"… I see…" Sensei had a very serious look on her face.

The five siblings weren't fazed in the least by the recent news. If anything, they were very excited about it.

Pudding always suspected that everyone knew about her being a Mew, so it was easy to explain it. The most recent events not so much though… Sensei wasn't exactly against it, it seemed, just a bit upset. The girl wondered if it was related to her attack by the alien hands.

Her five brothers and sister only seemed disgruntled about losing Yuebin as a part of the family. Although, the perspective of having someone in the family from another planet seemed to amuse them to no end.

Pudding's only concern was her father's reaction to her rejection to marry the one he had chosen. Surely he wouldn't return soon, but it still pained her. It felt like lying to him.

"Pudding-chan… Are you really sure that this is what you want?" Sensei still looked concerned; her hands tightly clenching to each other.

"Yeah-nanoda!" Smiling brightly, the yellow Mew stood and opened her arms very wide to emphasize her feelings. "Pudding like Taru-taru thiiisssss much-nanoda!" Happily, she sit down and started to search any possible leftovers that her sibling had missed previously. "Besides… Pudding is already married-nanoda!"

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"I don't know… They are kind of weird…"

"I can't understand what they say and it feels like they are saying bad things about us…"

Ichigo and Lettuce were clenching to each other watching as the strange procession of plant-creatures searched for space in the small backyard behind the Mew Café. Looking like sunflowers, turnips, carrots and some like daisies, the creepy creatures walked back and forth with no destination talking in their weird language.

"Shut up! I tried hard on these guys! Pudding said that she wanted a lot of people to come!"

"They have absolutely no class." Mint was drinking her tea in one of the outside tables that had been moved to make more space after the tree-altar that Taruto created had filled most of the space. It was beautiful without a doubt. The huge oak tree was lively and gave away a wild feeling to the party. Some lower branches would curl and twist to create the necessary figurines. The giant roots would serve to place the needed items. And some of it would extend through the yard in two parallel lines, arching to create something similar to church benches.

"They're not so bad. Chincha, Hanacha, Honcha and Lucha seemed to take a liking to them. Not sure they will survive though-nanoda!" Everybody turned around and sweat dropped as they witnessed the four boys tackle down a large vegetable and "mock" wrestle it.

Pudding was displaying the food on a very large root that would be used as table later. The cake would come later as Akasaka-san was still applying the finishing touches. While Pudding had cooked it and decorated it, she couldn't do the figurines on top.

"Oy! You still not ready?" Taruto took the plates from her hands. I'll finish this; you go get ready! At this rate, we'll have the party tomorrow!"

Laughing, the petit girl turned to her friends. "Everyone! Come help me! Sensei too-nanoda!"

And so, the five girls and Sensei descended to the habitable area in the Café. Shirogane had given them a room to get ready, but what they found inside was Kishu.

"Yo! Took your time."

"Kishu! What are you doing here! You pervert! Get out!" Mint yelled directly at his face.

The green head rubbed is pained ear before yelling on Mint's face as well. "Just so you know; I am the one in charge of explaining the dress to Pudding!" Kishu started floating way with an annoyed look. "But I guess you don't want any help! You can even find the dress by yourselves! Cuz I won't tell ya!"

Still, he made no effort to leave. He was just throwing a tantrum.

"Come on Kishu! Mint didn't mean it!" As soon as the words escaped her, Ichigo regretted speaking to him. The look in his eyes was enough to feel her with guilt and somehow, it was also a bit… painful.

"That's right-nanoda! Don't fight on Pudding's wedding-nanonanoda!" The yellow Mew approached Kishu and jumped to pull his leg (because he was floating a few feet above her). "Help Pudding-nanoda! … Please!" She made use of her most lethal puppy eyes attack. Kishu didn't even had a chance.

"Tchee… Fine."

Teleporting next to a tall object covered in a sheet (honestly! Didn't they notice it before?), Kishu signaled them to come close. Pulling the sheet of, a mannequin was revealed. Everyone marveled at the delicacy of the dress. Made in semi-translucent fabric, the piece would give away a sparkly gloss yellow feeling. The top was strapless, the end fabric curling to itself like petals, and the bottom was in several layers made to resemble an opened rose.

"What's the meaning of this?" Everyone jumped in shock as Mint's yelling broke them from their trance. "This is completely transparent! This is sexual harassment!"

"Well… Obviously…" The green haired alien was holding a small short white dress in the blue Mew's face. "She will be wearing this underneath." Poking the angry Mew's cheek, Kishu grinned deviously. "To think that we wouldn't think of such a thing... Hum… Maybe, you're the one with a dirty mind!"

Completely offended, the rich girl jumped on her offender and started a fierce fight. Meanwhile, taking advantage of their distraction, the other's managed to fit Pudding inside the dresses.

"Wow! Pudding-chan…"

"Sparkly!"

"You look gorgeous!"

"Isn't it too cold?"

The monkey was looking like a fairy tale princess. Turning a bit to see the effect she jumped in glee. She wasn't very curvy yet, but the dress would make her feel like a grown woman. The dress would only reach to her knees, so it was very easy to move around. A dream like dress.

"It's wonderful! The fabric looks light, but it's actually a bit heavy and it's very warm. Pudding is so happy-nanoda!"

"How mysterious! Kishu-san, how do you make such a fabric?" Lettuce managed to capture both fighters' attention. Both stopped a bit to admire the effect on Pudding.

"You look great, midget! It's all about the plant it comes from and how you refine it!"

"Refine?"

Kishu pointed at his own clothing. "These are made from animal skin or from other plants, cuz it's hard to grow that plant in particular. That fabric is more expensive and it's only used to special clothing. The white dress is made from the unrefined thread. It's not glossy, lighter and it's easier to rip. To refine the fabric… It's hard to explain… Let's just say that… involves a lot of layers and fraying. The end result is heavier and stronger than the original! Strange, right?"

Kishu grabbed a box from the ground near the bed and offered it to the bride.

"Ah! Shoes! So pretty-nanoda!"

The shoes looked exactly like the dress but were hard like leather and the soles were darker and even harder.

"And how do you make those?"

The green haired alien scratched his head thoughtfully. "I could tell you but… You would be grossed out."

The monkey girl's eyes lit up. "Now Pudding really wants to know!"

"Really? It has to do with slime~~~" Kishu teased.

"Tell Pudding! Tell!"

"Please don't!" The other five female screamed.

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Having everyone calm down, Kishu helped Pudding doing her hair. He arranged her hair into two ponytails and clipped flowers along the way. She looked like she was using a flower crown or tiara.

"Kishu-oni-chan really knows how to do hair-nanoda!"

"It's only natural."

"Kishu-san, is hair important in your planet?" Lettuce asked.

"Sort of… Like a maturity ritual."

"Maturity ritual?"

"We usually have our hairs very long and having a pretty hair is always recommended, but when our families wish to pass more responsibilities onto us, or when we became soldiers or are given an important mission; our families give us these." Kishu pointed the two clips that held his hair. "Then our hair is cut, they arrange our hair as they please and we have to live with it forever."

"Forever! What if they make a big mess of your hair-nanoda?"

"It's something important! They have to be careful. Besides… It's an honor."

Kishu was done with Pudding's hair and was preparing to leave, to allow the other girls to dress, when she pulled the bottom of his shirt.

"Taru-Taru doesn't have any. Why-nanoda?"

The green haired alien sighed.

"For starters: Taruto wasn't supposed to came with us. He infiltrated in the ship, so he wasn't really assigned a mission." He coughed awkwardly before whispering. "And considering that Pai didn't knew about, and he is Taruto's only family left, he couldn't have one."

And with that he left leaving the girls to mutter to themselves.

"Pudding didn't know… Poor Taru-Taru…"

"Don't be sad Pudding-chan." Zakuro pated a chair for the girl to sit. "You are going to became Taruto's family now. Come here; I'll do your make up."

Everyone gathered around them to watch with interest, and a bit of jealousy from Mint's part, as Zakuro gracefully transformed the small monkey girl into a princess.

"… Just a bit of blush and some gloss should be enough. You have a very beautiful face; no need to overdo it." The yellow Mew blushed even further smiling in embarrassment.

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"You all look very elegant!" The five Chinese siblings beamed in their graceful suits as Ichigo praised them.

"What if she doesn't show up?" Taruto was fidgeting in his suit. It was a shorted, more sophisticated version from the Blue Knight's clothes, but silver with a red cross that circulated his chest and back.

"What's with the sudden jitters? You are already married…" Kishu conjured another dark aura around himself. It seemed to very frequent lately, and babysitting the younger alien wasn't helping. He was using a similar vest to Taruto but in the usual green with brown finishes and no cross.

"Who cares… Let's just get this over with." Pai was using a robe similar to priest by Pudding's request, considering he would be conducting the ceremony.

The bridesmaids (aka Ichigo, Lettuce and Zakuro; Mint refused) were all ready and waiting for the bride to come. All the "guests" were sitting and waiting. Sensei was trying to calm the four boys to keep them from running to the food table. Kishu was pinching Taruto's cheek to keep him from going into trouble as his job as the groom's best man.

Finally the bride arrived accompanied by Akasaka-san. Heicha scattered flower petals ahead of them. When Pudding approached, Taruto held his breath.

Keiichiro accompanied the yellow Mew and returned to his seat next to Shirogane. Pudding smiled warmly.

"…You… look gorgeous…"

The girl's blush intensified but her smile was radiant.

"Taru-Taru also looks very distinguishing! Pudding feels happy-nanonanoda!"

Everyone seated, and Ichigo snuggled next to Aoyama-kun that was looking dashing in his tuxedo just like the other two human male.

Pai coughed to call everyone's attention. "Shall we begin?"

Not wanting to along the ceremony, Pai only made a small speech about marriage and it's values. Soon they reached the vows.

Pai gave the two the "sacred chalice". They held it, their fingers laced, while supporting the cup. Both said their practiced vows; for happiness, mutual respect, eternal love, and in Taruto's case, to protect Pudding with his life. Then, they took turns to drink from the goblet, which had grape juice instead of the typical wine.

"From this day forward you are husband and wife. Respect each other and love one another." Pai reached for a red ribbon and with it he tied their wrists together gently. Pudding's left and Taruto's right one. "This represents your marriage. Care for it. You may kiss the bride." Taruto started fidgeting but Pudding was faster and quickly joined their lips. Pai placed his hands above their heads and ended the ritual. "Everyone cheer for those who have moved on in the life cycle!"

Everyone stood up to clap. Pudding was beaming and Taruto seemed lost in his pace.

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"So… if that thing gets untied or breaks, it means that your marriage will end up badly?" Mint looked with interest the red ribbon that bonded the couple together.

"Just until the end of the wedding. Pudding, here!" The two were taking turns feeding each other as they could only use one hand.

"Not bad monkey! You can really cook!" Kishu was finishing his third serving. Food seemed to weight up his mood.

"Hey! Don't to my wife like that!" Everyone laughed and Pudding caressed the small marzipan dolls that had been adorning the cake. Everyone was impressed when Akasaka-san had showed up with a four level's cake. Pudding really had excelled everyone's expectations.

Her siblings were sleeping around the table already. After lots of dancing and a full dinner, it was pretty late; even Pudding was feeling tired.

"Let's clean this and then go home rest, yes!" Sensei said, clapping her hands when Pudding started yawning.

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"Ne, ne! Do you think they will have a real wedding night?" Mint smirked evilly over Lettuce's shoulder.

"Mint-san! They are just children!" Lettuce was looking extremely stressed by her friend's suggestions.

Ichigo watched them leave. She sighed sadly. Not only she was feeling nostalgic about the whole thing, she was having a major guilt attack. She had tried to talk to Kish after that, several times during the ceremony, but she couldn't come up with something to tell him. Anything would feel inappropriate and Kishu seemed to seen that because every time she had tried and given up, his mood seemed to have worsened. She sighed deeply again.

"Tired?"

The redhair jumped in surprise but smiled kindly at her boyfriend.

"Yeah… a bit."

"Are you sure you don't want me to take you home? I can always come back."

"Don't be silly! You already volunteered to finish clean for us girls! Finish quickly so you can rest yourself!" She gingerly pecked his lips before saying goodbye and leaving.

The night was clear and most of the stars could be seen. As a cat person, Ichigo enjoyed the night time. It was calming (when no ghosts were around).

"Meow!"

The girl was stopped in her tracks by the unusual sound. She came across a cat on top of a wall. It looked very sad.

"What's wrong? Are you lost?"

But strangely, he didn't answer her. He didn't seem to have a collar but wasn't unhealthy, except for his mood.

His greenish hair and wild amber eyes reminded her of someone. A guilt pang crossed her being and in impulse she cradled the cat in her arms. It wasn't the same as helping Kishu but…

Concerned with her thoughts, she failed to notice a single shooting star that crossed the sky, in that precise moment.

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**A.N.: This chapter was, kind of big… I changed my writing style a bit and it also helps to make the text look bigger. I included a bad omen in this chapter. See if you can find it and try to guess what type of trouble will fall in the next chapters.**


	4. Chapter Four: Let us be friends

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or its characters.**

**A.N.: So… Either no one found the omen or no one is reading this. Which isn't true because the stats don't lie. You really have nothing you wish to say? Come on… Even if it's just to say "Hey! I'm reading this!". I'm pouting!**

**In case you haven't noticed, I will be updating in my profile a general idea from when I'll be posting. It's far in the bottom. **

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Somewhere over the rainbow… Wait! What? No, that's not it!

Somewhere in Japan, lived a girl filled with guilt. Yeah, that's more like it! That redhead girl was currently sitting at her desk, in her room, pretending to do some homework. In reality, she was mopping dreadfully. A week had gone by since Pudding's weeding and she was the only one that seemed to be happy. Her and Taruto, of course.

So far, the pipes in the Café had burst and they had to close it (tomorrow she would return to work. Another horrible thing…), Masaya had caught what at first seemed like a cold but soon turned out to be something much more serious and had stayed in the hospital most of the time, Lettuce had become seriously impaired because one of her teachers had lost all her projects and exams from the whole year, Zakuro had slipped on the stage during a rehearsal and nearly broke a leg and Akasaka-san had the oven blow on his face but escaped with only minor injuries. It had been a week in hell for all of them. And Ichigo hadn't seen Kishu around so she couldn't have a talk with him. In a way, it was good, because she wasn't really sure of what to say.

"Meow!"

The girl jumped in surprise as her pet cat hoped into her lap but soon she began petting his head. His greenish fur was really shiny because Ichigo had taken her time washing him. She liked his amber eyes a lot too, because they were always full need for her affection.

At first, she had thought that convincing her parents to allow her to keep him was going to be hell, but luckily her father was gone away for business and after two days, she wasn't sure who liked him more; she or her mother. The cat had the habit of following her mother around during the day keeping her company. As soon as her father returned she was the one to convince him. So everything was alright.

What was really interesting about him was the fact that he never responded to Ichigo or seemed interested in talking to her. At first she was concerned that something was wrong with her. But as soon as she heard the usual drunk talk from the homeless bad cats that had taken a liking for her house's backyard, she realized that it was Hibiki's problem. Hibiki (sound), as she had appropriately called the cat, wasn't particularly worried about his lack of voice, it seemed. Maybe because of that he was a really god listener. He quickly became the girl's choice when she needed to rant about something; always loyally standing by her side until she was finished. In the end, she would always accommodate him in her lap and pet him as a thank you for listening to her. Such was their life.

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"Ichigo! Stop daydreaming! Table four and five still haven't got their requests!" Shirogane was a tyrant, Ichigo thought.

"Shirogane-san… Can you help Lettuce wash these dishes? She won't finish in time by herself." Zakuro appeared from behind them breaking the murder aura that was scaring the costumers.

"Why don't you help her?"

"I have other work to do." And with that she "magically" disappeared.

"Argh! No other choice… Ichigo! Go help Let…?" But the red-haired girl had understood the plan and quickly ran off to serve some clients.

Grumpily, the blond stomped into the kitchen. Everything seemed to be against him.

"Shirogane-san? What's wrong?" The green-haired girl asked peeking from under a big mountain of bubbles and dirty china.

Still upset, the Café owner grabbed the plate she was washing and started scrubbing him viciously.

"Ano…" The girl gently picked the plate back from his grasp, afraid that he would break it. "Why don't you dry it after I'm done washing?" She asked with a shy smile.

As his anger quickly disappeared at the sight of her smile, the blonde flushed hard, nodding silently. For a long while they just stood there in silence, flushing every time their hands touched,

"Urgh! So boring! That guy doesn't know the first thing about romance!" Mint huffed as she peeked at the two of them through the door.

"Um… Doesn't that mean that you know a lot about love my dear Mint?" Zakuro, who had stopped for a second to peek a little as well, suddenly bend over the smaller girl to whisper in her ear.

"O-one-sama! O-of course! He should say romantic things to her, for example!"

"Oh? Like what?" The purple had managed to roll her friend and was pressing her against the wall, their faces only inches from each other.

"Like… Like: I'll do anything for you!" The blue girl was almost in heaven, being this close to her adored senpai.

"So, Mint… Will you do anything for me?" The older girl smiled innocently.

"O-of course, one-sama! What do you want me to do for you?"

"Ah… I really, really want…" Zakuro closed the distance between their lips making it almost impossible for air to run between them. "… for you to… serve table eight for me. Thank you!" And with that she left the blue girl nodding idiotically with hearts in her eyes. Until she realized what had happened. Zakuro-one-sama had been teasing her! And worse! Actually accomplishing making her work!

"We'll… that was intense! You look like a high-school girl with a crush, blue-baba!"

The rich girl fumed furious, reaching out to grab Taruto's ear. "You, brat! .!" Then she realized what she was grabbing. "Nani…? What happened to your ears? And your hair?" Indeed the small alien boy wasn't so alien anymore. His ears were round and his hair shorter than usual, spiking a bit around the edges and lacking the huge ponytails. His eyes still had the same color but had lost the feline look in them. They looked human now.

"We'll, I couldn't go helping around if I looked like some dude cosplaying, could I?"

"Yeah… but… How do you do that?"

"Taru-Taru can turn into a human being-nanoda! It's amazing!"

"Eh? That's interesting! How?" Shirogane said while peeking over the kitchen door. "And don't go peeping people around." He whispered Mint that blushed.

"It takes a bit to explain. Wait until everyone is gone." And with that, the boy trotted back to his wife to tell some guys that she was serving to back off.

"Taruto looks so cute in that uniform!" Ichigo squeaked suddenly and everyone face-palmed.

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"Take this to table five-nanoda!"

"Eh? Didn't you say that the milkshake was for table five?"

"No, Taru-Taru! That was for table three!"

"Oh crud! Fine! I'll switch them!"

"…"

"…"

"Taru-Taru?"

"Yes?"

"Why haven't you gone yet-nanoda?"

"Because… we're using the same ball!"

Meanwhile, half of the costumers were bent over, laughing at what they thought was a splendid entertainment. The cute couple was trying to work Pudding's usual act with two people but unfortunately she only had a ball.

(after a whole day)

"Thank you for your preference. We hope to see you again." Lettuce greeted the last costumers before starting to count the profits of the day.

"How did we do today, Lettuce?" Ichigo said bent over her broom.

"Well… we had an increase in the number and the amount of tips." The green Mew stared in shock at the monstrous number.

"Eh! Really? To who?"

"Pudding and Taruto. For their show."

There was a sudden dread in the air as the two youngsters hopped in enjoy.

"Enough! Finish cleaning, go change and then return here so that we can talk!" Shirogane yelled suddenly. Everyone scrambled to finish quickly.

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"Ah, Taruto, you look very fashionable!" Lettuce cheered as Taruto returned from changing from the Café's male uniform. He was now wearing the clothes he had walked in with. Not teleported, walked in. He was wearing some regular red sneakers, jeans and a matching jacked with a red shirt underneath. To match his denim and red outfit, he also had a red cap turned backwards.

"… Hum… Thanks!" The small boy scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Taru-Taru is super cool-nanoda!" The blonde girl exclaimed in her tight orange Chinese dress.

"These human tastes will always be a mystery to me." Pai scorned from a chair in the corner of the Café.

"Pai! What are you doing here? Didn't you say this morning that human activities were too boring for you?"

"I called him. I figured Blondie would prefer a more… expert explanation." Kishu floated above them in a slop manner. He also had come to help but after a few minutes both he and Akasaka had disappeared for the rest of the day.

"Explanation? About Taruto's sudden fashion change?" Zakuro chuckled before pulling her own chair and sitting in a similar manner to Pai.

"Not just that." Shirogane loyally followed by Keiichiro, entered the open room making everyone settle down. "Also… there is the problem from the DNA change and instability."

"DNA change?"

"Took us some time but we finally managed to study Ichigo-san and Pudding-san's DNA. We also studied the aliens DNA structure. They're basically the same." Keiichiro calmly explained.

"Eh! Are you saying that we became aliens?" Ichigo screeched in panic.

"Of course not!" Shirogane sighed in aggravation.

"Yes. Yes you did." Pai contradicted.

"…"

A long silence followed the statement until Kishu softly nudged the elder alien trying to tell him that he had to continue or they wouldn't understand.

"Oh, fine!" The purple alien sighed. "The _Verbindung_ has many purposes like I told you, before. It connects two beings from the very core. Not only their souls but their bodies as well. Taruto, Pudding, show them."

"Ai!"

"Okay!"

Pudding ran to the other extreme of the room while Taruto waited in his place. When she was far away she turned to the wall. Taruto's face seemed to become very serious and focused, trying to see a spot in from of him. Suddenly he grabbed some air and in the other extreme of the room, Pudding yelped. In surprise, the humans in the room watched as the boy pulled the air like a rope and Pudding was dragged along until they were close again.

"As you see, the connection is physical and with enough amount of focus you can see it and touch it." The two youngsters took their seats back and everyone turned to Pai again. He reached his hand out and materialized a parasite. "In our planet, we have similar capabilities but different ones as well. Genetically speaking, usually when two beings mate, their descendants inherit their characteristics, but the progenitors remain the same. The _Verbindung_ has the capability to alter the progenitors' characteristics in a similar way to their offspring. Simply putting: it changes their DNA similarly making them have the same characteristics."

"You think that's simple?"

"The elder alien rubbed his temples in annoyance. "Pudding, exemplify."

"Ai!" The yellow Mew stood up and closed her eyes focusing. Soon a yellowish glow covered her and left everybody stunned with the result. Her orange dress was gone and in its place were a brown top covering her chest area with a yellow silkish part that looked like a skirt and stooped just above her bellybutton. Around her waist was a brown skirt with the under fabric also in yellow. Her wrists and ankles were wrapped in fabric like Taruto's but in brown. Big ribbons made the finishing's, like the other aliens. But the most impressive part were her pointy alien ears and her feline like eyes. Most of her hair was set loose but two small ponytails adorned the top of her head.

"Oh, Pudding!"

"In the beginning we used our _Verbindung_ to mate with other species in the hopes of attaining characteristics that helped our situation. Some were more successful them others but in the end we became what we are today. By the way, one of the most successful mating was humans. In its way is strange, considering they are weaker and have worse adaptions, but the hybrids resulting were somewhat of a super specie. There were plans to mate with humans instead of taking the planet, but after seeing your disrespect for nature… There were also plans to find specific humans and create a super force that would lead us to a new world. In the end we were too afraid of them and their power and the theme was forbidden. Most of the hybrids born in that time are now dead. Only one remains."

"Oh, right! That boyfriend of yours, is the last one, right?" Taruto turned to stare at Ichigo. The poor girl looked stunned for a moment.

"Deep Blue was no different from the speculations that we had about the "Greater Beings". The Elders were fools thinking they could control them."

"Wait just a moment please. Could that mean that Taruto and Kishu attained the Red Data DNA as well?" Keiichiro seemed nervous while Shirogane was in pure shock.

"Ah! Taru-taru has Mew Mew powers? Ahahahah! That would be funny-nanonanoda!" Pudding laughed while floating above their heads.

"I never tried…"

"Of course… This also applies to you and Kishu." Pai spoke directly to Ichigo.

"No wonder their DNA is so instable! What if it starts interfering in the Mew project?" Shirogane was pacing back and forward in an anxious manner.

"What if it does?" Everyone looked at Pai like he was crazy. "Honestly? Look… Our capabilities of DN adaptation are far better than yours. If you think about it, that girl is the only one that has demonstrated a greater progress when developing her capabilities. It's most likely to have been Kishu's fault. You should be grateful; his mistake allowed our defeat."

The guilt stung inside the redhead. It had all been Kishu's fault. Or it was thanks to him. Decided to repair things she quickly looked for the green haired alien. When she found him nowhere in the room, something inside her told her to look for him in the kitchen.

"What about Pudding? She also mated Taruto and didn't show anything different from us!" Mint scorned.

"Pudding has been mated for far less time. Such drastic change to one's DNA requires time."

"Ehhhh! Does that mean that Pudding may turn into a monkey on day? Yay!" The orange girl spun gingerly a couple of times before landing and returning to her human form. "If that is all-nanoda; Pudding and Taru-Taru need to go pick up Heisha!"

"Why don't you teleport there Pudding-chan?" Lettuce squeaked in curiosity.

The blonde scratched the back of her head. "Eheheh! Taru-Taru is practicing being human and Pudding is not very good at it yet."

"Not very good? You were supposed to teleport to the table and ended up on top of an electric cable!"

"Oh! They are similar-nanoda!"

"How come?"

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Meanwhile, Ichigo had left the room to look for Kishu. She found him seating on the counter looking through some random cookbook. And somehow, she found herself once more without knowing what to say.

"Do you think that if we had met differently things would be… well, different?"

She was surprised. Ichigo hadn't expected him to start the conversation.

"How differently? You mean: If you hadn't stolen my first kiss, if I wasn't a Mew, if I hadn't had a boyfriend?"

His smile was a little sad and still he didn't look at her.

"Yeah… something among those lines…"

"It worked well for Pudding and Taruto. I don't think that the situation is the problem."

When he finally met her eye, she noticed how his eyes were filled with pain. "Then! What was the problem all along?"

Somehow her body seemed to have a mind of its own. Against her better judgment she found herself softly squeezing his shoulder in a comforting manner.

"I kind of understand that you wanted me to be yours because of the Verbing thing… but… you never considered my feelings in the middle of that! You tried to force me instead of trying to create something between us. Pudding and Taruto were friends and they still are, above all." She felt almost out of breath like she had to fight to keep the words inside… or out. She felt like she was throwing out feeling she didn't knew she had.

"… I see…" The girl jolt away surprised, when he suddenly got up.

As she saw him turn to walk away something came over her. If she didn't end this now, then it would never! She needed to say something! Anything! If not, he would just walk away!

"Kishu!" The green alien stopped a little surprised. Carefully he took a peek over his shoulder at the fidgeting girl behind him. "Eh… ano… Do… Do you want to be friends…?" Good! That sounded pathetic and weird, even to her ears.

But Kishu surprised them both, starting to laugh. He went back to where she was and softly patted her head. "You know, Koneko-chan; that was supposed to be my line!" Then slowly he embraced her. Her first reaction was to push him away, but soon let herself relax and lock her arms around him as well. "Hum, sure… We can be friends now."

They stayed like that for a while, Ichigo feeling a little lightheaded. In some way, hugging Kishu wasn't any different from hugging Aoyama-kun. It held the same safe feeling. It was comfy.

"Ichigo!"

The two broke apart in surprise, as Masaya looked like he was ready to murder someone. But the angry teen only stomped furious out of the kitchen.

Confused, Ichigo felt a little pang of guilt for Masaya now, but also a little anger. Could it be that he didn't trust her that much!

"Ichigo. We should go after him and explain what happened." Kishu not only sounded but looked serious, Ichigo noted. Any other time he would have rejoiced at the situation.

'Ah… Is this how he thinks a friend would act?' She thought. "Let's go!"

In the other room they were greeted by a confused gang, minus Pudding and Taruto that had left. "Where did he go?"

"He left…"

Quickly, the two of them ran outside on his pursuit.

"You know… If she just refrained from talking to Kishu this wouldn't happen!" The blue Mew chirped proudly while sipping some tea.

"That would be impossible." Pai countered making her glare poisonously at him. "Since we're on that subject, there is something I wish to explain to you."

"What about Ichigo and the others?"

"It is up to you, whenever they should know this." The older alien teleported quickly only to return with a white board. There he drew three figures in a line "Here! I want you to understand that, among our kind, every time that there is a first kiss, there is a connection formed. Now… Kishu used his first kiss on Ichigo." He drew a tick line between a goofy face and the cat face that was in the middle. "Their connection his strong and is the main one, but… Aoyama's first kiss was also used on Ichigo. And he is also one of ours." He drew a thin line between a cool looking face and the same cat face. "So as you see, there are actually two lines that connect to Ichigo. And she is constantly being pulled by them. Unfortunately for her, they pull in different directions." He stopped to allow the information to sink in. "Now… these three form a unique connection, because the Verbindung makes their DNA similar. All three of them are equal in some way. Sadly, the Verbindung also creates an emotional connection. Wherever the two extremes, in this case three, want it or not, they will feel affection for each other. Therefore, even if Ichigo wanted to ignore Kishu, she won't be capable of such. Their connection keeps them linked."

"That's… horrible! What about Ichigo? She'll feel divided like this!" Lettuce seemed really upset with the problem. Zakuro gently patted her shoulder.

"Well in this type of cases…" He quickly crossed a line over the cool face. "The secondary link, the weaker one, should be eliminated. For the sake of the whole group. The other two would suffer from the loss but their stronger connection should hold them alive."

"What!"

"We can kill Aoyama!"

"No… In this case, uncharacteristically, the meeting point, aka Ichigo, is taking the side of the weaker connection holder. Such an event would be too traumatic."

"But then… what will happen to them?"

"Naturally, they will try to find balance in their relationship. For the sake of Ichigo, those two need to understand how to live with each other."

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**A.N. Next chapter will have more action. Finally some Mew action! May take a while because I usually get stuck in fighting scenes. **


	5. Special Extra: Time for class!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or its characters.**

**Warnings: Mauled chibis. **

**A.N.: I know I said that there would be action this chapter but I decided to add this before.**

**Please understand that this isn't a regular chapter. I realized that some people may have gotten confused with the two bonds. This was the original (revised) explanation I had planned but I figured it didn't fit well within the seriousness from last chapter. **

**The plot will continue next chapter. This not mandatory reading**.** But is still funny (I hope). Just some curiosities and explanations about the Verbindung. No connection to the actual plot.**

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Pai teleported near a white board.

"So… Shall we start this class?"

The whole Mew Mew cast was seated "eagerly" waiting for his explanation.

"Just get over with it so people can go back to their busy lives!" Mint grumbled while sipping some tea.

"…Hum… Fine!" He drew the word _Verbindung_ in large letters on the board. "Now… Does anyone know what _Verbindung_ mean?"

Only crickets were heard in the whole classroom.

" (whispering) Ignorant bunch. (normal voice) I'll have you know: _Verbindung_ means link or bond. Curiously, in human German it has the same meaning."

"Aaaahhhh."

Silently glaring at his class, Pai drew two balls connected by a line.

"I hope that there are no doubts about the physical capabilities of the _Verbindung._" The purple alien scanned his "students" but no arms were raised. "Good. Because I wasn't going to repeat anyways." Everyone sweat dropped.

"Let's just review, first, what we already know that can break this special connection. And knowing that breaking a connection means death." Quickly he wrote several points in the board.

. Long distances – more than 2000 billion light years will automatically break the connection.

. A long separation time – depending on the distance, more or less time can break it. (Ex. Being separated by 5 m takes 200 years for the connection to automatically break. Being separated by 1 Km takes 85 years.)

. A physical attack on the Verbindung (beware of it)

. Death from one of the extremes (only applies to a two people connection. Ex. Pudding and Taruto)

. All of those together.

"Was the last one really necessary?" asked Ichigo.

"Yes."

"o_o"

"Let's continue. Despite all of this, the Verbindung is very strong. It protects everything connected to it."

"So it acts like a shield?" Taruto raised his hand.

"Yes… And no. It protects against spiritual attacks or diseases from the body itself. It is useless against physical attacks on the body. If something is physically detached from the body, it will not be within the link's protection anymore."

"Physically detached-nanoda?"

"For example: If someone cuts your ear off."

"!"

Taruto floats to his companion and whispers in his ear. Pai coughs as Taruto takes his seat once more.

"Babies and mothers can also be an example."

"= _ ="

"Let's take five, shall we?"

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"Okay! Everyone is refreshed and ready to continue! Let's continue with this stupid class! What will we learn now? More stupid, boring facts?"

"Get out of my seat, Taruto."

The class is quiet once again.

"Since you are so eager to do something, why not assist me with this, Taruto?" Pai handed Taruto a camera and a mic and teleported him to a cliff.

The board was pushed back and a giant screen was placed in the front of the class. Images from the cliff could be seen.

"Pay attention now! I've come up with this method to better explain the several variations of the unusual connection that binds Ichigo, Kishu and Aoyama together. I shall demonstrate what will happen in case of death by one of them. To assist me I have created these mutated creatures in my lab."

Pai teleports a chibi Ichigo, a chibi Kishu and a chibi Blue Knight.

"Question-nanoda!" Pudding jumps in her seat with her arm touching the ceiling.

" (sigh) ... Yes…?"

"Why is that chibi the Blue Knight-nanoda?"

"Because I think he's cooler."

"Oh! Okay-nanoda!"

"Moving on… To represent the Verbindung we will use these." Pai shows them ropes. "We'll represent a stronger bond between Kishu and Ichigo…" He ties them together with a very strong and good quality rope. "… And a weaker bond between her and the Blue Knight." He ties them up with a crappy thin rope. "To symbolize their deaths we will teleport them to the cliff and make them hang for their lives."

"WHAT?"

But it was too late and the poor chibis were already hanging in the cliff while Taruto was filming.

"Now then… Let's experiment what will happen if one of them slips. Kishu first. Taruto, do your thing." Pai commands the smaller alien through the mic.

Taruto throws a rock at chibi Kishu and he falls. His rope pulls Ichigo's and the two of them are hanging being supported by the Blue Night's rope.

"See now… As Kishu dies he will pull Ichigo's rope. And she will pull the Blue Night's."

In the screen the three chibis are fighting for their lifes. Suddenly, the Blue Night's rope breaks and the other two fall into nothing.

"Oh… I wasn't expecting that." Pai scratches his head in concern. "He was supposed to fall with them. I should have given him a better rope… Ah! No. Here it goes… Thank God I gave him that program."

In the screen they could see as the Blue Night, that couldn't live without chibi Ichigo, had jumped into the cliff to join her.

"Okay. Let's see what we have learned from this."

Pai writes in the board: _If Kishu dies the other two also die._

Pai teleports three more chibis, gives them similar ropes to the other group and also teleports them to the cliff.

"Pai-san… Shouldn't you spear the poor things?"

"The mutated abnormal creatures? No worries… They're not that intelligent. Let's move on to Ichigo. Taruto… Oh wait… There's no need after all."

Clumsy chibi Ichigo slipped on her own. The two ropes held her but somehow she seems to be too heavy and the two boys fought to hold her. In the end they just slip and the three fall in to obviation.

"Yes… It's a good thing I remembered to give chibi Ichigo a lot of cake so that she would be a little too heavy. So… What have we learned?"

"That you are a chibi murderer!"

"Besides that…"

"That _If Ichigo dies the other two also die._"

"Ah! Finally someone who pays attention. Thank you Zakuro-san."

Pai scribbles what she just said.

"Let's try the Blue Knight now shall we!"

"No! Please stop killing them!"

But he had already teleported another group to the cliff. Taruto stomped in the Blue Night's head and he falls being held by Ichigo's rope. She falls after him and the two are being held by Kishu. It first seems that they will all fall again because Kishu is slipping but suddenly, the Blue Night's crappy rope snaps and he falls. Kishu manages to pull Ichigo up.

"Wonderful! Taruto you may come back."

Taruto returns and the screen is taken away. Pai writes another thing in the board.

"Hum… Pai? Are you going to leave the two of them in the cliff?"

"So… What have we learned?

"You are?"

"No one? Oh, fine… Write this down: _If the Blue Knight aka Aoyama aka Deep Blue dies Ichigo and Kishu survive._"

"That doesn't sound fair!"

"It's life. Moving on. Last lesson for today. Someone asked me this. Can other people touch our Verbindung? For privacy issues I will only show a silhouette of that person." The silhouette of a small alien with two giant pig tails on top of his head appears.

"Hey!"

"And the answer is: Yes. Other people can touch it with the right level of focus. Pudding and Taruto, come here so that I can demonstrate."

"Okay-nanoda!"

"What are you going to do?"

"You see, just touching someone's Verbindung doesn't hold that must of an interest besides only feeling uncomfortable for the two extremes of it. The real danger is the manipulation."

"Ma-manipulation? P-pai? What are you going to do?"

Pai is not listening. "If someone knows how, by touching your Verbindung they can manipulate you." He suddenly grabs the two youngsters' connection and starts twitching it. "There… This is a small example of what can happen."

Pudding and Taruto are moving around like little small toy monkeys that clap metal dishes.

"Oh, no!"

"Pudding-chan!"

But they don't listen and continue to move around making noise.

"So… in order to prevent this what you need to know is(Pudding jumps in and starts screaming like a monkey)and also(Taruto is hanging by the ceiling lamps and starts breaking everything)and so; in resume: You need to(Pudding and Taruto cry and groan in front of Pai threatening to destroy the world) And that's it."

"What! Don't say that! We didn't understand a thing you just said!"

"That's too bad. You should have paid attention. Oh! Look at that… My time here is over. Good bye and I hope that we won't do something similar in the future. Please."

And Pai teleports away from the chaos.

"No! Come back and fix this!"

"What about the chibis?" Lettuce is still crying.

"What about Pudding and Taruto?"

The two of them are still causing destruction and soon the world is reduced to dust.

The End

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**A.N.: I hope you enjoyed this stupid chapter. Please proceed to the real chapter. Thank you.**


	6. Chapter Five: Is everything really fine?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or its characters.**

**A.N.: ****Cheek my profile for probable release dates for my fics. **

**Okay, this is the real chapter. I really hate writing fighting scenes. You better appreciate it! XD**

**Special thanks to Mika Ikisatashi for reviewing me but more importantly: for reading my fic! (Duh! Statement!) But it's true. I think that the most important thing is for someone to actually read what I write. It took me a while to realize someone had reviewed me because I usually just go to Traffic Stats to see if people are reading. **

**This is my least popular fic and I hope that by changing this to a T more people will read. (and by taking that stupid rant in the beginning).**

**No one found the bad omen? It's already showing consequences, I warn you :P**

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"Service to table 4!"

"Thank you! Come again!"

"Pudding and Taru-Taru are going to perform for you now-nanonanoda!"

"Be careful with those dishes!"

Life in the Mew Café was running like always even after the events in the day before. There was a conjunct decision in favor of not mentioning the double connection to the others. Pudding and Taruto couldn't know because there was a chance they may blurb in out by mistake.

Even while feeling guilty about lying, causing even more friction between the instable trio might cause devastating consequences.

"Lettuce! Look out!"

Just as the green mew was about to hit Ichigo, and her tray of desserts, with a giant pile of clean plates Masaya appeared from nowhere and held them apart.

"Be more careful." Aoyama smiled warmly at them.

"Ah! Ichigo-san! I'm sorry!" And she prepares to bow in apology.

"Nooooo! Don't bend!"

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Ichigo sighs loudly after finally being done with cleaning all the plate pieces from the ground. Things are doing well but there's a weird atmosphere around her she feels.

"…And in the end things worked fine yesterday… so why?" She sighs once more.

In the end, she and Kishu had separated to look for Aoyama-kun but the green alien had been the one to find him. Ichigo didn't know what had been said or what had not. In that moment of despair she hadn't thought twice about trusting that Kishu wouldn't go on to make things worse.

"Friends are supposed to trust each other, right?"

Of course! And the message she had received from Masaya later that night, proved that things had worked just fine.

Thinking about it: she hadn't deleted it yet. She really should start cleaning her mailbox more often; she barely had any space left!

Puffing her cheeks in annoyance she pulled out her phone and started the boring job of clearing the junk from her mailbox. As soon as she reached the messaged from the night before she couldn't help but reread it.

'_Sorry for my behavior earlier. Haven't been feeling like myself lately. I and Kish talked. Everything's okay. Love you, Ichigo.'_

True to be told, that morning Masaya had arrived all smiles; just like always. Despite her personality, this time she decided not to make any comment. Her mother had already taught her that men have weird ways to bond.

"Ichigo! If you have time to daydream you can go help the others!" The redhead jumped in fright as Shirogane started yelling behind her back.

"I'm going! Sheesh! Slave-driver!"

Stupid slave-driver! Right when a cute girl was thinking about important stuff!

"Koneko-chan! Catch!"

Suddenly a tray filled with newly baked and decorated desserts, teleported in front of her eyes. Miraculously she did manage to catch it.

"Kishu! Don't do that! Just tell me it's done and I'll come to receive it!" The pink mew yelled to the inside of the kitchen.

"But ~~~Koneko-chan~~~! The face you make is hilarious!" A mischievous green alien popped out of the kitchen. "And I called. No one answered so I thought of you~~~!"

"Argh! Another slave-driver! Go back inside before someone sees you!" The redhead pushed the surprised alien back inside before stomping out to deliver the requests. At least those parts of their relationship weren't gone. He was still annoying and she could still hit him when he got over the edge.

Kishu had also come that morning in a good mood. He and Akasaka-san had everyone surprised when they simply started working together preparing the food. And even more shocking- Kishu actually had talent for it. Several clients had complimented Kishu's artistic plateau deserts and parfaits.

"Who knew he had in him… When did those two arranged to work together?"

"Miss…? Are you listening?"

Snapping out of her daydream, Ichigo quickly returned to scribble down the costumers' requests.

Kishu was acting weird lately despite all. He and Taruto could both turn into humans but Kishu hadn't done it yet. He refused to interact with the costumers in the Café, asking Keiichiro to attend to their compliments instead.

Maybe it was her imagination. Maybe she was just over thinking it. He was probably just uncomfortable with this new situation. And why was she thinking about him so often? Damn, she needed to get a grip!

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"Ah! It's true!" Lettuce was squeaking loudly.

"Even I have to admit that it's as weird as they claimed." Mint peeked behind her pretending not to care.

"Pudding wants to eat it-nanoda!"

"What is going on here? There are clients out there that…" Shirogane was stopped in his rant by the strange scene in front of him. One, two, three mews were bent over themselves and a very annoyed baker. Said annoyed baker was Kishu and he was trying to decorate a cake with three girls on top. "Go back to work!"

"Blondie! Don't startle me! I have to start it over now!"

Ryuu face palmed as three sneaky mews passed him and ran off. He could still hear Kishu grumbling and cursing as he also left the kitchen.

"Ichigo!" The startled redhead nearly dropped the birthday kid's ice cream on top of him. "Go make sure no one else disturbs Kishu until he's done!"

"Eh! Why me?" She puffed her cheeks, annoyed.

He viciously glared at her. "Because Zakuro ran off somewhere again; Taruto and your boyfriend are entertaining the birthday kid and I don't have any more responsible people. That means that you are the only one left. And also… because I said so!"

She watched as the stressed leader left before heading to the kitchen. 'Wait! I'm the last resort? Jerk!' Carefully she peeked inside the room. Kishu was still bent over the crocked cake.

Near their closing time a mother and her four year old son had come in and claimed that a friend had recommended their new chef. The kid wanted a custom made cake that he had drawn and several places had refused it already. The reason was the drawing. The kid wasn't obviously an artist. It was composed by strange shapes and weird creatures that he insisted that it needed to be like he had drawn.

Shirogane was going to throw them out when Taruto offered to help. With his drawing skills and the little boy's assistance he managed to create a more acceptable drawing. Not that it wasn't strange still. But Kishu and Akasaka still decided to go for the challenge.

"Isn't Akasaka-san helping you?" She carefully whispered afraid to startle him.

"He's doing the marzipan dolls." Magically it seemed Kishu had managed to make the macabre drawing come to life.

"I think that kid has some problem…"

"Don't be mean, Koneko-chan~~! Artists are hard to understand!" The green alien grinned at her apparently having finished his part.

"Say what you want, but I would never eat a cake colored purple and green pus!" Ichigo showed her disapproval twisting her nose and pulling out her tongue.

"Eh! You not eating a cake? The world might end, Koneko-chan." The mischievous alien grinned even wider and suddenly he grabbed her hugging her.

For a second she was too startled to say anything. He wasn't doing anything wrong. It was just a side hug. An awkward side hug.

She coughed uncomfortably. Realizing the problem he quickly let her go. Scratching the back of his head he grabbed her wrist and pulled her near the huge fridge. "… I need to ask your opinion on this." He retrieved a small tray from the refrigerator and exposed it in the countertop. "So… what do you think?"

The redhead couldn't help smiling in delight at the amazing view in from of her. A small strawberry tart and giant pink parfait with cream and decorated with the succulent red berries were magnificently exposed. It smelled and looked delicious. She marveled the small details: the cream and the strawberry sauce that would create artistic patterns and the big heart shaped waffle with chocolate that adorned the parfait. It all screamed lovely and cheerful.

She said the last part out loud. "Well, it should! I made it thinking of you of course!" Kishu exclaimed seeming proud of his work.

"Eh…?" Maybe it was impossible for things to be different for them. He shouldn't say those things. But perhaps changing all over the sudden was hard for him.

Noticing the weird look she was giving him he quickly rectified. "Wait! It's not like that! It's for a special promotion!"

"Promotion…?" Ichigo was surprised.

"Yeah. Blondie was thinking of promoting new dessert menus using you girls so me and Pretty boy came up with the idea of basing the five menus on you as well."

"Pretty boy? You mean Akasaka-san?"

"Who else? The others are: Romeu, Blondie, Midget and Pai."

"Eh… Okay…"

"So what do you think about my master piece? You're the first I'm showing it to! We were thinking about a chocolate and mint petit gateau with blue coverture, and something else to accompany, for Bird girl; an elegant mocha and dark chocolate plateau dessert accompanied with a tall pomegranate verrine (glass dessert) for Wolfie; and Midget suggested banana pudding with nuts for Monkey girl, but I think that's a little too… expected. Fish girl is the hardest! Lettuce is bland and even if we make some sweets of it they don't have much flavor or color. I suggested some kiwis to add color but… I don't really know. What do you think Koneko-chan?"

She wasn't sure when it happened but Ichigo found herself watching Kishu as he spoke. She realized that this was a side of him that she wasn't aware of. When they were enemies the only thing Kishu had showed her was his obsession for her and with destroying Earth. It was creepy and annoying; but now he was no longer after those and he had time to think about other things. To think that he could be so normal was kind of endearing.

"… Koneko-chan? Are you daydreaming?"

Ichigo suddenly became aware that Kishu must have been talking to her for quite some time while she was thinking. "Eh! Ah… Kiwis! Yes! Kiwis are very good! Pear! Pear is sweet… Ahahahahah!" the redhead laughed awkwardly not sure how to exit such a weird situation.

Then something strange happened. The green alien bent slightly, bringing their faces closer and closer, and reached to touch her. Her body froze and for a moment she forgot to breathe. Ichigo though that he might kiss her but at the last minute he seemed to snap out of it.

"… Hum… Oops… Maybe I better go downstairs to see if Pretty boy needs help. You can eat those if you want, I'll do some more later on." Kishu scratched the back of his head sheepishly. It was hard to know if he was embarrassed or nervous.

As she saw him leave, Ichigo released the breath that she had been holding. What had just happened? Was she going to just let him kiss her? Thank God he had had more sense than her in that moment.

"Ichigo. Let's talk." The redhead wasn't allowed to understand what had happened as Aoyama grabbed and quickly pulled her to the outside of the Café.

"… Aoyama-kun?"

"What the hell was that? I thought you were just friends!"

"We are just friends! That… it was nothing… I swear I love you Aoyama-kun! Just you!" How could she explain what had just happened when she didn't know herself.

The boy was practically fuming at her. "Sometimes it doesn't seem that way. Maybe your friendship is one of another kind." And he turned to enter the building once more.

"… Aoyama… kun?" It was strange. Aoyama-kun was acting like himself. He would never be so irrational! "Aoyama-kun!" Desperate, Ichigo could only call his name.

He stopped as he was about to cross the door. He blinked and turned his head around in confusion. Then he saw her and his face turned into one of regret.

"Ichigo… I… I don't… I never meant to… I'm sorry!" He immediately hugged her while mumbling innumerous apologies.

"Aoyama-kun, is there something wrong?"

"… It's has been happening for a while… I keep doing these things that don't feel like myself! I'm sorry! I know that this situation is hard on Kishu and that you feel guilty about it! Please forgive me."

The pink mew could see how desperate and regretful her boyfriend was. She softly pecked his lips while smiling him reassuringly. "It's fine. But if you are concerned about this ask Shirogane about it. He's good at this type of situations."

He smiled back at her and together they stood in their quiet embrace.

"Ah! There you are!" Both jumped in surprise and turned to watch the small alien wave at them. "Blondie is freaking out looking around for you! There's an emergency!"

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There had been a while since the last time they had fought a Mew Aqua creature. Tokyo Mew Mew quickly dispatched to fight him followed by Aoyama, Kishu and Taruto.

As soon as they arrived at the park, where the alarm had sounded, Aoyama turned into Blue Knight and the girls into Mews.

"Mew Mew Strawberry! METAMORPHO-SIS!"

"Mew Mew Mint! METAMORPHO-SIS!"

"Mew Mew Lettuce! METAMORPHO-SIS!"

"Mew Mew Pudding! METAMORPHO-SIS!"

"Mew Mew Zakuro! METAMORPHO-SIS!"

It was a very nice show to watch. But unfortunately, no creature was in sight.

"Were is it? We are wasting our time here!" Mint huffed while stomping her foot in the ground.

Suddenly, from under the blue Mew the ground gave away and a giant mole caught her. Its body was bright and watery like a Mew Aqua crystal.

"There it is! Come on guys!" Mew Ichigo took her position as the leader. "For the Earth's future, we'll be of service. Nyan!"

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! Leave that stupid catch phrase for another moment! Save me!" Mew Mint was screaming in panic as the mole begun digging a hole and dragged her along.

"Oh no! Mint-san was taken underground!" Mew Lettuce was panicking already.

"Taru-Taru! Teleport her back here!"

"Eh? You know I can't do it while she is in contact with that thing. Baka." He playfully pated her head.

"We need to get her back to the surface. Any ideas?" Mew Zakuro calmly stated.

"Give me a moment!" Taruto threw some of his parasite to the ground hopping to hit a root. "There! Let's catch them!"

But the monstrous mole was too fast for the poor roots to catch it. Even with all of Taruto's encouragement they weren't growing fast enough.

"I'll lend Taru-Taru a hand-nanoda!" The yellow Mew grabbed her rings and started dancing with them, creating a rhythmic sound.

"Hey! They're growing faster!" Taruto marveled at the magnificent results.

"Here! Taru-Taru, do some too!" She handed him on of the rings and together they danced. Soon the mole was trapped and forced back to the surface.

"Great job you two!"

"Yup! Taru-Taru has been teaching me and now Pudding has a bigger 'afility' with plants-nanoda!"

"Don't you mean 'affinity'?"

"Aaaaahhhh! Stop the chitchat! Save me! I'm all dirty!" The blue Mew was still screaming, trapped by the giant mole.

"Let's go save Mew Mint!" Ichigo prepared to jump in when Mew Zakuro stopped her.

"Wait! Don't use your attacks. What if you hit Mint?"

"What should we do? You can't really teleport her out?" Mew Lettuce was tearing thinking that her friend was a goner.

"The mole will just come with her."

"Actually… That's not a bad idea." And to everyone's surprise, Kishu teleported the two of them… 90ft from the ground.

The monstrous mole just fell with nothing to stop it and with Mint screaming in panic. The creature fell on its back leaving a giant crater in the middle of the park. It stood there out cold allowing an unharmed Mint to escape.

"That was awful! I'm all dirty!" Mint cried sadly.

The others are running to her when suddenly the creature starts to turn. Poor Mint was still crying and didn't seem to notice.

"Mint-san!"

"Mint! Look out!"

The Blue Knight run to save her but Kishu teleports there first and attacks it with something similar to Ichigo's cat claws. It howls in pain and the two of them managed to distance themselves from the creature.

"Mint! You're okay! Thank you Kishu!" Ichigo cheerfully waved at the green alien floating above them. Kishu waved her a "victory" sign while looking at his own hands in amusement.

"Okay! Guys, give me your power! I'll purify it!" Mew Ichigo held her Strawberry bell above her head while the other Mews filled it with power.

The Blue Knight also raised his sword to give her his own power.

"Taru-Taru, Kishu-oni-chan! You guys too! You have mew powers, right?"

Nodding, the aliens merged their power with the others. Soon, the Bell gained a new color and a new attack was created.

"Strawberry bell! Ribbon! Rainbow Heart!"

The bell shoot a giant rainbow colored heart that involved the confused mole separating it from the Mew Aqua crystal. The scared animal scrammed away before the girls retrieved the crystal.

"Wow! That was quick!"

"Yup! Taru-Taru and Kishu-oni-chan were very handy! Horay-nanoda!"

Despite being covered in dirt, even Mint had to agree. Ichigo nodded happily. Things were looking great for their friends. Her happy giggle was stopped with a chill when she noticed the vicious look the Blue Knight was giving Kishu behind his back.

"And Aoyama-kun… thanks for the help as well!" She tried to cheer him up.

But he just frowned and rubbed his eyes as if a fog had settled around him.

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"Ah… It's good to be home! Don't you agree Hibiki-chan?" Ichigo was happily stretching in her bed.

The redhead swiftly picked up her pet cat lifting him in the air above her head as she lay in her bed. He meowed while swinging his tail enthusiastically.

"Eeeehhhh… You seem to be in a very good mood today!" She laid him on her chest while rubbing behind his ear. "I suppose everyone has been in a good mood lately!" Hibiki purred loudly as her hands massaged his scalp. Then her hand stopped and Hibiki watched as his owner frowned deeply. "I wonder… what's wrong with Aoyama-kun. He doesn't seem like himself."

Ichigo had a bad feeling that she couldn't really pinpoint. There was something strange in the air.

"Ahahahahah! Hibiki-chan! Stop!" The redhead laughed until tears came out as the green cat liked her under her chin. "… Thanks for cheering me up. I'm sure he will talk to Shirogane. Aoyama-kun is responsible like that!"

The pink mew rolled onto her side while flicking the lights out. Placing Hibiki by her side she softly petted his fur. "Still nothing, hum? Maybe one day you'll tell me something. I bet you have a lot of strange secrets and amusing stories to tell me!" And she fell asleep like that, imagining the strange things her cat would one day tell her.

Hibiki curled near her face but didn't fell asleep. His bright amber eyes carefully watched the full moon that showed through the window.

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**A.N. And that's that. Sorry if the fighting scene sucked. I'll be working harder for the next ones. I just wanted to show you the new powers.**


	7. Special Extra: The Fong Household

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or its characters.**

**A.N. This chapter was part of the last chapter but it was turning way too long so I decided to post it as an extra. I changed it a bit. **

**I'll answer reviews in the next chapter. I shall post it tomorrow.**

**Today is my birthday! April 10****th****!**

**Don't forget to review me as a birthday present! **

**Warning: Chapter in Pudding's point of view. Sometimes in Japan kids speak in the third person so Pudding may refer to herself as pudding sometimes. **

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A day on the Fong household

The sun was peeking through the window curtains already so I quickly scrambled to wash my face and brush my blond locks. I like to get up early. It's quiet and no one will disturb me when I'm trying to finish things fast.

Today is still very warm so I chose a yellow summer dress to go with today. Before going to the kitchen to start breakfast I stopped to watch my husband sleep. Yes, despite being only fifteen, I, Pudding Wong, am already happily married. My husband Taruto, or Taru-Taru as I call him, is currently sleeping in my bed with me. Because Mint said that real married couples do that. We need to get in tune with things but I think we're doing great so far! I may need to buy a bigger bed though. Taruto hogs a lot of space. I don't understand why couples like to sleep in the same bed. Not that I'm not used to it now but in the beginning, none of us could move without it being awkward.

Oh, well! I can't daydream forever! As quickly and silently as possible I head to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. So busy-nanoda! Breakfast for Hanacha! Breakfast for Chincha! Breakfast for Lucha! Breakfast for Honcha! Breakfast for little Heicha! Breakfast for Taru-Taru! And maybe some for Pudding… So busy…

When my family wakes up its very noisy! My four brothers run down the stairs like their buts are on fire! Heicha stays a bit behind because her legs are shorter. Then Taru-Taru teleports here and they immediately start eating. They're noisy! And the food disappears way to fast! But since Taru-Taru is here, he always saves me some. He's so nice-nanoda!

After breakfast my brothers went to wash their faces and brush their teeth. And then they get dressed for school. I used to help them but now they're all grown up! It's helpful. And meanwhile, I can do some laundry. Taru-taru helps me lots!

At seven-thirty we all leave the house. Hanacha, Chincha, Lucha and Honcha go to their school. Me, Taru-Taru and Heicha go to her school. Sensei is always there waiting for us. It's sad that next year, Heicha will be going with her brothers to the big kids' school. But Sensei will still come to help us and to visit us! So it's going to be fine!

"Good morning, Pudding, Taruto, Heicha-chan!" She waves at us smiling brightly.

"Good morning!" The three of us cheer, hand on hand, Heicha always in the middle.

And then we say goodbye and leave my sister with Sensei. I and human Taru-Taru walk to the Café. Because Pudding is such poor teleporter… But, even bad things have a good side! Taru-Taru pretends that he doesn't see or know, but he lets Pudding hold his hand on the walk there. It makes me so happy-nanoda!

When we arrive Zakuro-one-san, Shirogane-oni-san and Keiichiro-oni-san are already there. Always! So me and Taru-Taru get dressed after greeting everyone and start working. Today is our sweeping day so we head outside to… sweep.

Shortly after we start Lettuce-one-chan arrives and greets us very politely. She's always very polite. And after her, arrives Mint-one-chan on her limousine. She just waves at us.

Next has to be Aoyama-oni-chan! He smiles at us looking very sparkly and princely. Ichigo-one-chan doesn't have bad taste but Pudding prefers Taru-Taru a thousand times more!

"It's almost time to open." Taru-Taru calls me and we start to head inside but Pudding knows. I just hold the door open because Ichigo-one-chan should be almost here. And sure thing, she arrives in the nick of time with a piece of toast on her mouth, yelling "I'm late! I'm late!".

And that makes everyone. It's always a mystery to Pudding when Kishu-oni-chan arrives because he always teleports directly on to the inside of the Café. Mystery!

And our day working starts.

Shirogane-oni-san dazzles the costumers and shows them where to sit, and turns into a slave-driver in regard to his waitresses (at least according to Ichigo-one-chan). Keiichiro-oni-san and Kishu-oni-chan make delicious and beautiful parfaits and cakes. Lettuce-one-chan breaks some dishes. Taru-Taru and me serve our clients and preform our wonderful tricks together! Ichigo-one-chan tries too hard. Aoyama-oni-chan works perfectly. Mint-one-chan drinks tea and teases Ichigo-one-chan. Shirogane-oni-san and Lettuce-one-chan talk to each other, get awkward with each other and steal glances at each other all day. Zakuro-one-san scares some costumers. Ichigo-one-chan makes a fool out of herself. Kishu-oni-chan nearly hugs her and ends up getting awkward between the two. And finally I almost catch fire to the Café with my fire breathing stunt. A typical day.

And then it's time to close the Café. Everyone helps clean the daily mess and runs to receive its own daily profit. Things are looking better since Taru-Taru contributes with his money on the house.

When we are fully dressed, Taru-Taru and I say goodbye to all our oni-sans and one-sans and go shopping for some groceries. Today Sensei will bring Heicha so that we can go.

Taru-Taru pushes the car and I look for the things we need. In mid-way we end up arguing about wherever or not to buy ice-cream and candy. I let him have one piece. It's no good! Pudding has to be stricter! But then Taru-Taru holds Pudding's hand while eating his chocolate very happily and I forget about everything.

And as soon as we get home it's time to cook dinner. But before we must evade the attack my brothers prepared for us. No fear! Pudding was prepared for it so she teleports directly to the kitchen. It's a success! Almost… I ended up on top of the counter. Uuuuuuuuhhhhh! Why is Pudding so bad at this?

Taru-Taru shows up in the middle of preparations to help make dinner. Aaaawww! It's so nice when he helps!

What's not nice it's the war that follows! If I didn't know better I would think that my brother were starving the whole day. They just don't eat the table because I painted it with a special awfully bad tasteful paint. It was a clever idea-nanoda! Me, Sensei and Taru-Taru have to fight for our share. The strongest survives!

After dinner, always follows a quickly chase to force my brothers into the bath and bed. When it's finally quiet, the three of us clean the mess in the dining room and Sensei leaves for the night.

I and Taru-Taru take our baths and finally head to bed.

"Good night Taru-Taru!"

"'night Pudding."

And that's how Pudding's day goes! After this, all that is left is sleeping and waiting for another fun day! Pudding is a very happy girl-nanoda!

The End

**A.N. Short story complete! Chapter six right up! Tomorrow.**


	8. Chapter Six: Even a bad day can end well

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or its characters.**

**A.N. Hi! Guess what? ****Yesterday was my birthday!**** Hooray for me! Let's celebrate it together with a double update! Almost. I haven't had the time to finish this chapter.**

**And now! Let's answer some reviews!**

**Mika Ikisatashi – **I hope that with the first special mini-chapter the bond and its circumstances have become more comprehensible :) Hope that you'll keep reviewing!

**drenlover100 – **I love Kishu/Dren too! Sorry for not having commented on your answer before :( Unfortunately it's incorrect. Still, I'm very happy that you have tried! I'll give you a clue: It's something that is related to the first chapter. Keep trying!

**Audreywashere – **Maybe… ~~maybe something will happen~~! (smirking evilly just because she knows the future) But unfortunately for now it's just Aoyama/Ichigo fluff. Don't feel discouraged by that though :D

**Animelover4798 - **It's updated :P Thank for your opinion. Since English is not my native language it worries me that something may not be understandable.

**Don't forget to review me as a birthday present! **

**And no! Because some people have been asking me: no, I won't make Deep Blue return. I don't like him. There's no place for him in this story. :P**

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Birds sing, the sun shines brightly in the sky and the colorful autumn breeze can lift up a mood quite fast! But that's not what is making this girl happy. And she's inside a building too.

Momomiya Ichigo, 17 years old. Currently on a date.

"Ah! Look Ichigo! That one is so cute!" Aoyama-kun cheers happily watching the giant water tank in front of him.

"Which one? Uuuhhh! They all look so delicious!" Of course that, for a cat-girl, a date at the newest aquarium means only one thing. Food.

"Eh… I don't think that people will be very happy if you start eating the fish here." The charming boy quickly pushes her away from her preys to the next sea-water paradise.

Ichigo is very happy. There had been a while since the last time they had taken a break or had a date. Spending some time with Aoyama-kun is really lifting her mood. Too much stress had been piling up lately.

"Shall we go get something to eat, Ichigo?"

"I thought that you couldn't eat the fish here?"

"No, but we can go get some taiyaki!"

"Yay! Taiyaki!" And there they went to get the sweet treat.

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"Which side do you usually start with, Ichigo?" Masaya asked his girlfriend biting on the head of the fish.

"Tail!" Happy beyond recognition, Ichigo's ears were popping out excitedly under Aoyama's jacket.

"That's very cat like!" He chuckled while rubbing her ears and watching her purr around the anzo (a.n. sweet bean paste).

What a perfect day! As they continued to walk through the bright aquarium glasses Ichigo couldn't help feeling like this.

Despite continuing to think about the fish like lunch, Aoyama-kun didn't seem mad or upset at her. Every time she tried to bat the colorful fish he would laugh and pat her head playfully. And the day seemed to fly away like that in blissful joy.

"Ah! My feet hurt!" The red-head complained near the end.

"We have been walking nearly all day! It will be night time soon probably." The princely guy tried to comfort her. "Shall we take a break?"

"Yeah…" Ichigo eyed around catching the toilet sign from the corner of her eye. "I'll be right back!"

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The tap squeaked loudly as she tried to open it and soon cold chilly water ran. Sighing happily, Ichigo splashed her face trying to chase of all the fatigue away. Her reflection on the mirror returned her happy smile as she cleaned herself.

The day was being great! She was feeling very happy and nothing could make her feel guilty! Eh? Guilty? Why would she feel guilty?

'Nonsense! I'm just tired. I'm just starting to think silly things.' The red-haired girl mused.

As she left the bathroom and after a quick scanning of the room, Ichigo concluded that Aoyama wasn't there. 'Where has he gone to?

Walking to the last place she had seen him, Ichigo stopped near a pitch black tank. 'Is it broken?'. Looking at the informative board she realized that it was a special tank for deep sea fish. Curious she turned to the small window. 'But we can't see them like this!' But soon her ears were perked up with interest. Every so often a small light would appear indicating a life was indeed present. For a while she stood there fascinated by the will to live those small fish had. Never seeing the sun but still fighting hard! Not to mention that almost anything could be looking at her from the inside of the glass, probably a very ugly fish, and that added a new thrill to the thing.

"Ichigo…" She jumped in surprise when a familiar figure hugged her from behind. As she turned to greet her boyfriend he surprised her even further by capturing her lips. Never being one to waste a perfectly good kiss, Ichigo quickly deepened it by pulling him closer. For a while they stood there like that, oblivious to the strollers behind them. Both were panting a bit when they finally broke apart. "What was that for?" She curiously inquired him.

"Because Ichigo… You looked so cute trying to see the fish there!" He laughed gently still hugging her smaller frame.

Puffing her cheeks with air she turned around, back to the tank, pretending to be upset with him. He just laughed harder poking her side. And then… the guilty feeling hit her again. Why?

"…Ichigo?" Noticing his girlfriend's sudden change of mood and her frown, Masaya quickly became concerned. "What's wrong?" But she didn't know! What was this? Maybe… but that… that would be fair to…

"…Aoyama-kun…" She prepared to tell him something that wasn't going to like. But she had to.

Them something bright lit inside the tank. Quickly gluing herself to the glass she watched as the light diminished again until it hid the giant body once more.

"Aoyama-kun! You felt that?"

"Yes. It's definitely Mew Aqua! We need to tell Shirogane."

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The walk home was gloom on Ichigo's side. Despite having been interrupted she still needed to tell Aoyama-kun. She was a good girlfriend so she should do it!

"Ichigo… We're here." Blinking as she was caught daydreaming, Ichigo found herself at her door step. "Well… I guess that's it. I'll see you tomorrow."

As the tanned boy prepared to leave, the red-head grabbed his sleeve. "Aoyama-kun… There's something you should know."

He just stopped and seemed to wait for what she was about to say. Ichigo took a deep breath before making her decision more firm. "I…. When we were on the aquarium today… For a split second… I… thought that it would be nicer if… if the three of us were together instead. You, me and… Kishu." She closed her eyes and waited. And waited. But Masaya didn't spoke.

Slowly, Ichigo opened one eye and then another. Masaya was still standing in the same spot; his back against her so she couldn't guess what was on his mind. "…Aoyama-kun… I love you! I don't know why I thought that but I know that I love you! I just… I just felt that I shouldn't hide this from you. You deserved to know." But he still didn't answer her words. "Aoyama… kun?"

Ichigo touched his shoulder softly, fear starting to take over her, but she had to jump back to avoid his arm. Her cat abilities allowed her to keep her balance but what she saw as she looked her boyfriend in the eye made her legs lose their strength.

"Don't you touch me!" Aoyama's face was twisted in anger in a scary snarl. "How dared you! On our date! You should think about me and about me only! This isn't ending like this!" And with the terrifying threat he left leaving the poor girl shaking on the ground.

"…A… Ao… Aoyama… Masaya…" She couldn't remember such a scary expression since Deep Blue. And still…. It wasn't like it. It was something very Aoyama-like instead.

"Meow!"

The scratching on the door behind her reminded the freaked out girl that she should go inside. As soon as she crossed the door, Ichigo immediately hugged Hibiki that was still meowing nervously.

"Hibiki! Oh, Hibiki! What's going on with Masaya?" As usual, the greenish cat didn't gave her an answer but carefully licked the tears that wet her face. And strangely, Ichigo felt better. A bit divided, but still better.

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"… and so, Taru-Taru made the flower bloom and it was just like a rainbow inside! Pudding was super happy-nanoda! And then, Sensei managed to keep the kids inside so we actually stayed out for a long while. And… Eheheh! Taru-Taru actually kissed me! Taru-Taru never tries to kiss me! Sensei says that he's shy. Pudding always has to kiss him first. But not yesterday! Pudding was in heaven-nanonanoda!"

Ichigo was trying to listen, with all her might, to the energetic description Pudding was making about the huge number of romantic surprises Taruto had made for her as soon as he had found out that Aoyama-kun was taking Ichigo on a date. Male and their competitions…

It was a bit unnerving that her night had ended better than Ichigo's. The mew leader had barely got any sleep and was still a bit dreadful about meeting her boyfriend, if he still was, that day. Fortunately, a sleepless night makes one rise earlier so she hadn't meet him yet having arrived sooner than everyone else. Climbing to the balcony on the top floor of the Café she had been there for a while cleaning when her monkey friend found her and started telling her tale.

"Ah… Pudding is feeling very happy this morning! I'm going downstairs to help more. Bye bye Ichigo-one-chan! Ah! Hello, Aoyama-oni-chan! Time to work-nanoda!"

Shaking a bit, the pink mew watched her friend leave and Masaya enter. His bangs were almost covering his eyes and his head a slightly bent. She thought that he may start yelling at her again. Yet, his voice was low and shaking when he spoke.

"Ichigo… Yesterday I… I almost… I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Ichigo!" He felt to his knees and the red-head noticed that he was crying.

"Why are you apologizing? I was the one that…"

"No! I was the one in the wrong! Ichigo… Ichigo was being honest to me! Even costing you. You could have lied to me! But instead you decided to tell me the truth. It was very noble and I… I acted like a jerk."

Feeling shaken by the extent of her boyfriend's suffering, Ichigo kneeled by his side pulling him to a hug and letting his head rest on the crook of her neck. His sobs quickly filed the air and she noted that he felt very small and fragile like that. "I'm scared. I'm scared, Ichigo!"

"I know." And she just rocked him.

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With time, his body stopped shaking and his sobs died. Boy and girl sat by the door side by side, the red-head waiting for him to speak, certain that his emotional confessions were far from over.

"I just spoke with Shirogane-san. He said that he's going to help me figure out what's wrong. He was really cool about it. I also told him about the Mew Aqua. We're going there tonight, I think."

"Aoyama-kun… I'm also very sorry. I shouldn't have thought those things."

Despite having his bangs still covering his face, this time Ichigo had a better idea of what Masaya was thinking. His face was serious but he didn't seem upset.

"Ichigo… I always thought that you were someone to be praised but now I think that you far more than that. You are such a brave person. I feel honored to be by your side." He gave her a weak smile. "To tell you the truth… I also had those thoughts."

Ichigo was dumb-struck. Aoyama-kun had?

"Sometimes when we were talking, or when we were just walking, it would come to me that it would be nice to see Kishu's opinion on something. At first it was confusing and I felt so ashamed of it! But Ichigo… You didn't let yourself be stopped by this. I think that what you did was amazing." By the time he was finished, Ichigo was strongly hugging his arm, touched by his feelings. "Kishu is a different person now."

"I think so too." She agreed.

"I feel like… if something happened… I could definitely trust him to protect you." Masaya was looking grave again and his expression brought back the chilly feeling inside Ichigo.

"Aoyama-kun?"

"I can feel it. It was a good thing I walked out yesterday. I could have… No, I definitely would have… hurt you! I think that next time something happens, I'll hurt you, Ichigo."

A terrible sense of dread filled the air around them. How much problems can fill a girl before she explodes!

"I hardly think so." Ignoring his shocked expression, the red-head grinned and poked his side playfully. "That would mean leaving the path open for Kishu to conquer my heart! And you don't want that~~! Right?"

A little amazed by his girlfriend's mood changing capabilities, Masaya couldn't help laugh at it, all the tension leaving his body.

"Huh! Ichigo… you're so special!"

Taking advantage of her embarrassment, he leaned in and carefully joined their lips together. Soon, both became oblivious to the rest of the world.

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Meanwhile, downstairs, another conversation took place in parallel.

"Eh? And after the flowers? Will you let me in expectation? Did you kiss her out of her mind?" Kishu was floating around, following Taruto everywhere, teasing him on his spectacular romantic night (which he had heard a thousand times already, from Pudding).

"It's none of your business! Leave me alone!" The poor boy had been mortified to discover that Pudding had been telling the story to everyone that was willing (and not) to listen.

"I just felt like I should tell you that you did far better than Romeu! It's something to be praised Midget!" Kishu was almost singing while fluctuating above him.

"Huh? How do you know that?"

"… Never mind." Looking guilty Kishu quickly teleported to the kitchen.

"No way! You were tailing them on their date?" Being a stubborn blockhead, Taruto wasn't willing to let him escape with that. Kishu didn't answer him, opting for washing some dishes instead. "Oh my God! That's so lame! Ahahah! What's gonna do? It will only make your envy increase!"

"… envy huh?"

"You don't? I thought that you didn't like the guy! He has everything you ever wanted! You should be super envious!"

"No sure about that…"

"Eh? You don't want to kick his ass anymore?" The small alien was stupidified by his friend's lack of emotion.

But Kishu laughed at him this time. "Be careful, Midget! If I ever were to kick the ass of the person I envy the most, you would be in trouble!"

Surprised the brunet pointed at himself making the green haired alien laugh even harder. "Yes, you! Weren't you the one in a similar situation to mine? Didn't your girl also had another guy? Didn't she dump him for you? Mine didn't. You… you have what I always wanted. You were the one that got the girl and the two of you live happily ever after! I didn't." The dark shadows around his persona seemed to have returned.

"Oooohhhh! Don't be depressed-nanoda! Good things in life will come!"

"Who's depressed? I'm just saying… Eh? Monkey girl? Where are you?"

The two alien looked around frantically looking for the source of the voice. From the corner of the kitchen a cover looking like that wall was removed to reveal Pudding.

"Pudding!"

"Eheh! Did you like that? That was Pudding's special ninja skills-nanoda!" The blond girl grinned merrily willing striking a ninja pose. "If you cheer up, Pudding will teach this to you!"

"OH! So cool! Teach me! Teach me!"

Kishu stared blankly, while rinsing the wet plate on his hand, as the two youngsters got super excited about the ninja moves. He grinned too, once more admitting that he was indeed jealous of the two brats.

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"This place looks scary at night!"

"A monster may come to eat you-nanoda!"

"A monster! No! Nyan! Aoyama-kun!"

"This is ridiculous!"

After having Shirogane and Akasaka-san opening the safety locks from the aquarium, the Tokyo Mew Mew were ready and willing to fight the Mew Aqua Creature that was living in there. Well… sort of.

"Mew Ichigo! There's no such thing like monsters!" Mint stomped her foot as her leader cried a little harder while clinging to Masaya's arm.

"That's not true! What about Quimera Animals? And the Mew Aqua Creatures?"

"… You can fight those just fine…"

"Koneko-chan~~! Romeu will look like an orangutan if you keep pulling his arm like that!"

Ichigo finally let go while apologizing to an amused Aoyama.

"Do you feel anything Mew Lettuce?"

"Eh? Me?"

"It's obvious that this creature is an aquatic one so it's only natural for you to take charge!"

"Eeeehhh?"

"Mew Mint. Don't tease Mew Lettuce like that." Mew Zakuro warned her friend.

"~~~Yes! One-sama!~~~" Hear shaped eyes Mint cried.

The Blue Knight kept leading them through the darkened hallways. Something felt wrong. There was something strange in the air.

Taking the personal's entrances, the group reached the top of the tanks. The smell of salty water was present and the dark waters bellow them looked ominous.

"This is the one. According to the plant, at least."

"It's too dark to see anything! Can't we turn on the lights?"

"Shirogane-san said that the power seemed to be out."

For a moment, everyone just stood there not really certain of what to do. Then, steps were heard. Quickly, the group disbanded to hide.

Several minutes passed until the opposite door to the one they had entered, opened. A middle age man, who wielded the aquarium's employee uniform, appeared. He seemed to be carrying a large box full of fish.

He dragged himself and the box, slowly approaching the water's edge. The Mews were already ticking with annoyance as the man didn't seem to hurry up. The suddenly, the whole run lit up and a gigantic Mew Aqua colored body appeared in the water. Everybody gasped in horror at the poor man's face. It was filled with numerous red circles and his expression was blank and empty.

A giant tentacle rose from to the surface to retrieve the box with food and the man never moved or looked surprised. At the same time another one closed in on the man and surrounded him.

"Tokyo Mew Mew! Let's save him!"

As the eight run to save the man's life the creature suddenly retreated. Surprised, they stopped. "Ano… Sir? Are you okay?"

Before having time to understand what had happened, several people entered the room and the middle aged man attacked Mew Ichigo. Fortunately for her, he wasn't strong enough to capture her.

The others stood on guard as several aquarium employees closed in on them.

"They must be controlled by that creature! Look at their faces!"

Indeed, several red circles adorned their empty stares as they advanced towards them.

"Aaaahhh! It's a zombie attack!"

"Mew Ichigo… Have you been watching horror movies again?"

"Just one! Come on girls! For the Earth's future… Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"

Suddenly, the "zombies" jumped on them without warning. But just like before, their strength wasn't the best.

"These are only old people! This is going to be easy!"

"Ano… Mint-san… You better look behind you!" Lettuce shakily pointed behind her friend.

Slowly turning, Mint was brought face to face with a gigantic tall bald young black man. "Oops! Help!"

"We can't really attack them! We could hurt them! What should we do?"

"Mew Lettuce! The creature is in the water!"

"Understood!" But as the green Mew prepared to jump in, she found her path blocked.

"We need to open the path for Fish girl!"

"Leave this to me!" The Blue Knight knocked several "minions" with the back of his hilt managing to bring Mew Lettuce to the water. Satisfied with his work he turned around to help the others failing to notice the tentacle that had sneaked behind him.

"Just keep them on the bay until Mew Lettuce separates the Mew Aqua!"

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"

"Aoyama-kun"

Six fighters froze as they saw the tentacle retreated, leaving a very quiet Knight behind.

"Aoyama-kun?" Ichigo took a step forward meaning to reach for him but Kishu teleported in front of her.

"Wait, Koneko-chan."

And Aoyama attacked them.

The Blue Knight ran forward blindly swinging his sword. Sparks flew when it connected with Kishu's Dragon Swords. Unlike the many workers, his strength was real and even Kishu lost his balance for a moment before pushing him back. Soon, both were attacking each other metal clashing with metal.

"Aoyama-kun! Kishu!"

"Don't worry, Koneko-chan! I'll hold him! Keep this people away from us!"

Nodding seriously Ichigo started giving orders and soon most people were unconscious. "This should keep them safe for a bit."

"Aaahhh! Mew Ichigo!" Mint appeared running.

"Those are tourists-nanoda!"

Indeed more people were arriving and the Mews were clearly in disadvantage. "Stay strong guys!"

While the others were trying not to panic, Kishu was facing some problems of his own. He was starting to feel the fatigue get to him. Unlike the Blue Knight that seemed not to be able to feel anything, some careless wounds were taking a tool on him. And it was hard to fight someone when you were trying to be careful not to hurt him.

The Knight's movements were sloppy and unpredictable, making Kishu be on his guard all the time. The strength of his blows didn't seem to diminish either.

Suddenly a more placed strike sent his swords flying away and water appeared under his foot sending him straight to the floor. Opening his eyes he saw the blade descend on his direction and immediately knew that he wouldn't be able to teleport away from it on time.

On the other side of the room, Ichigo, alerted by the sound of metal hitting the floor, also saw the blades. "Kishu!"

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But what happened to Mew Lettuce?

As the water embraced her body the green Mew could immediately feel the power of the Mew Aqua that was impregnating it. Taking advantage of it she summoned her porpoise tail and leisurely let herself be dragged deeper. It was a big tank, the water being too bright to actually see anything.

Then she heard them. The cries of fear.

Quickly swimming she reached the bottom landing painfully. Still blinded by the light she reached out to who was calling her. Her hands hit scaly textures and pointy teeth. Scared she retreated before remembering that this was a deep sea creatures' tank she returned to them.

Sure enough the monstrous fish swam to her begging for help. Their dark world was gone and they had been left in alienist realm with a dangerous sparkly creature.

She felt sorry for them. Despite their scary aspect they were simply scared creatures that weren't used to the light. As soon she had to flee. The Mew Aqua Creature that she couldn't she had attacked, the water around them changing dangerously. But how could she fight something she couldn't see?

She could feel her new fish friends' intentions to help her and grateful she followed their instructions. These fish that were used to the lack of sight were perfect to help her feel were her adversary was.

She was fully determinate to trust them as they left her at the right place. Summoning the powers of the Mew Aqua she called for her castanets.

"Ribbon Lettuce Rush!"

Her attack crashed into the giant octopus and soon the Mew Aqua separated from his body returning him to normal and the water as well.

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Ichigo watched as the small blood thread ran through Kishu's white skin.

Aoyama stood still his sharp blade merely touching the side of the alien's neck. And with the other controlled people he felt to the side. The light that had been illuminating the room was gone.

Everyone felt to their knees feeling relieved and Kishu let his back hit the floor panting in fear, his eyes wide open in shock.

This was the scene Lettuce found when she resurfaced.

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"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Aoyama had been bowing and apologizing for a couple of minutes already.

"It was so scary!" Ichigo was crying still very nervous from the earlier encounter.

Kishu was looking better, having survived the incident with only a small scratch, and was a bit divided on which of the two he should be reassuring that moment.

"… It's getting late! We should go home!" Everyone quickly agreed with Taruto clearly not wanting to be a part of the weird trio's antics

"Hey! They left us!" Ichigo cried outraged.

"Leave it, Koneko-chan. And you too Romeu! I'm fine, so let's forget about this and go home too!"

Sighing, Aoyama straighten up looking tired. Still, he smiled a bit at the alien. "Nevertheless, this seemed to prove my earlier point! If I'm not around, I can trust Kishu to protect Ichigo!"

The alien seemed shocked for a moment. "I-Idiot! It's not like I'll be please or anything, even if you praise me!" He pretended to be upset.

But Aoyama only laughed at his embarrassed reaction, followed by Ichigo. Soon Kishu had no choice but to join them and the three stood like that for a while not really sure why they were so happy.

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**A.N. Tada! I hope it was worth the small waiting!**


	9. Chapter Seven: Fluff and Drama!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, it belongs to Reiko Yoshida (I finally know it :P).**

**A.N. Ohohoh! Some Fluff and some Drama today, we shall have! If I looks like everyone his sugar high or something (Ichigo is :P) it's because I was totally craving chocolate when I wrote this! **

**Animelover4798 I'm so happy that you reviewed me again! Sometimes this just happens to me. People that used to review me constantly disappear and I stay here thinking: "I have I done or said something bad? Why? What happened?" Then I just suck it up and go back to writing. Because I'm stubborn like that T - T. Even if no one reviews me I intend on finishing any fic I started!**

**Animelover4798 – **What I always say to people is this: Don't hate Masaya (in spite of him being a damn tree-hugger and a pretty boy that doesn't do much for the story except being there and being… pretty) because it's not his fault! Reiko Yoshida made him like that! Masaya didn't have a choice. But don't worry, this is a Kishu/Ichigo story :D

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As always, life is being dull and normal in the Mew Café. There's absolutely nothing important or interesting going on. And to make it worse, no costumers are coming today. Even Mint seems bored and slightly sick. (Must be from all the tea she had time to drink.)

Ichigo is sprawled in one of the tables on the verge of creating roots. Her dear boyfriend is outside with Akasaka-san trying to lure some customers with their pretty smiles so she is all alone.

Zakuro is reading near the window and a few steps away from her, Pudding and Taruto are sitting on the floor facing the wall. The purple haired girl is doing her best but after a while she has to ask.

"What are you two doing?"

They slowly turn to her showing slight signs of insanity.

"Watching paint dry." They chorus in a monotone tone and blank stares.

And the wolf girl turns back to her book feeling sorry to have asked. 'I wonder if they know that the no one has painted that wall recently. The paint is dry.' And she continuous to sending them stares unsure of wherever she should ask or not.

The only movement worthy of note is in the kitchen where Kishu is still working on the Café promotion menu and Lettuce is making coffee and some biscuits. Humming to herself, carefully she displayed them in a small tray and headed to the "basement". Unfortunately for her, she had to pass by her friends on the way there. Now… usually this would be nothing too much, but today was a very boring day. One must find a way to entertain itself.

So, as the poor unsuspecting girl crossed the small distance from a door to another she had to stop for a moment. It was Ichigo the one that usually was afraid of ghosts but now she had the feeling that something horrible was going to attack her. And soon enough she turned to face the possible threats.

"~~Lettuce~~! ~~Where are you going~~?"

"~~What are you taking there~~?"

The voices were mockingly joyful but the five scary stares turned them in. Scared to death and shaking the green haired girl slowly tried to retreat.

"J-just so-me cookies a-and coffee! Shi-shirogane-san has been working h-hard in the lab! I tho-ought t-that I woul-d bring him some-thing!"

She was almost there. She could reach for the door knob and escape. But the four (not Zakuro, she was way to cool for that) desperate people had crawled in her direction and were quickly closing on her.

"~~Eh?~~ Shirogane?~~ Isn't that nice!~~" They closed in with creepy smiles making Lettuce scream in terror. She opened the door and closed it at the last moment making her attackers bump on to it.

Mint, Ichigo, Pudding and Taruto just stood there with equal dreadful looks. "She's gone."

"Leave her alone. The girl is trying to paddle her way." Zakuro wisely said from her seat still reading. Everyone sent daggers at her.

Then Ichigo straightened up and walked to the kitchen. "I'll go see if Kishu will let me raid the fridge."

"Ohohoh!" Mint laughed evilly when she was out of ear range. "There's another love affair! I'll go see that one instead!"

But she was dragged in the opposite direction. "Don't interfere with Ichigo-one-chan and Kishu-oni-chan! Play with us instead-nanoda!"

"Eh?" Mint was dragged to a chair and tied to it by an ivy.

"Pudding feels like playing hairdresser! Taru-Taru is my assistant-nanoda!"

"Here I am!" Taruto showed up behind her with a pair of scissors.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! One-sama! Help me!"

But Zakuro had as well been pledged by boredom and just stood there watching the show.

"Shirogane-san? May I come in?" Lettuce cautiously peeked from behind the door.

Ryou was intently staring at the wide screen in front of him. Distracted he half-grunted something that she chose to take as a yes.

"I brought you some coffee." She told him softly, showing him the tray.

He blinked confused, looking between her and the snack but mostly at her. He probably didn't remember her nor had paid attention to her since she arrived. But being a logical man the new information soon sunk in and he immediately dived for the food. "Thanks."

Quickly he shoved some biscuits in his mouth and took a big sip.

"Ah! That's hot!" Lettuce tried to warn him but it was too late. Shirogane fidgeted in his seat, his face twisting in pain.

"Are you okay?"

Coughing and tearing he seemed to have survived it. "… Yeah. Just hungry and tired. But as soon as I'm finished I'll go get dinner."

"Dinner? It's nearly lunch time. Shirogane-san, how long have you been here?"

But the blond wasn't paying attention to her again. His eyes were glued to the formula and numbers in the screen. It all looked the same to Lettuce. Chinese. Or in this case, Arabic or some sort of weird language, since she could actually read a bit of Chinese.

Ryou groaned and rubbed his temples seeming completely frustrated with what he was seeing. She wondered if he had a headache.

"If you're not careful you'll have to start using glasses." Standing behind him, knowing he wasn't focused on her, Lettuce had the audacity of doing the boldest thing she could remember. Slowly reaching for him, she started to steadily massage his scalp.

At first Ryou tensed at the new contact but soon relaxed lying behind to let her reach him better. Lettuce could see his face clearly from the new position. His eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly parted. He moaned softly into her touch making here blush ten different colors of red.

They stayed like that for a bit but soon the silent started to make Lettuce nervous. "So… what is worrying you?"

He grunted a bit, not looking very keen on talking but sluggishly opened his eyes staring openly at her making her blush intensify. Slowly he straightened his head but didn't pull away from her. He pointed at the screen.

"There's nothing wrong with Aoyama-san."

"Eh?" Lettuce stopped what she was doing, feeling confused. But resumed it when Shirogane turned to her, pleading (and what a sight that was!).

"Aoyama told me that he was having several attacks, if that's what we can call it, where he would act against his personality. He asked for my help."

"Can't it be from the double connection?" The girl asked.

The blond didn't immediately answer her and when he did she noted that he was dragging the words a bit. "I thought about it. But Pai said that he never heard of such a thing." His voice soon turned to an almost whisper. "… and I can't find anything wrong…"

Lettuce was about to ask him what was wrong when she noticed that his breathing was very soft. Titling her head, she confirmed that he was indeed asleep. Having found herself in such an unusual situation she felt strangely blunt. In between strokes she would pet and feel his hair. It was soft and felt nicely in her hands. She continued her explorations when she noticed that he was looking at her by the corner of the eye. Maybe he wasn't that deep in to sleep.

Embarrassed she let him go and stumbled back, panicking. "Hum… Eto… I should go and… see if anyone needs my help! Shirogane-san, you should rest!"

And she quickly left leaving Ryou behind looking very sad to lose her company. Sighing he save his data and picked the rest of the cookies and the coffee. He decided to leave it to another day and get some sleep. He nibbled on his cookie feeling much better now that his headache was gone.

"No… I don't think that eggplant is a very Zakuro flavor. It was good though!" Ichigo happily chunked down a large piece of the eggplant dessert, despite having twisted her nose to it on the beginning.

Kishu nodded absently, scratching ideas from his notebook. "And what about the chocolate gateau for Bird Girl?"

"It's awesome! The blueberries were a nice touch to it! And the blue is a pleasant shade!"

Kishu scribbled some more before sitting by the counter to watch Ichigo eat the sweets he had made. He grinned smugly as she cheered happily from all the sugar. "Koneko-chan~~~you make the cutest faces when you're happy!"

She giggled not really being there. Right now she was in Candyland. "I have been so tense lately! This is good for a change!"

"Yeah, that whole thing with Romeu. Has Blondie discovered anything yet?" He asked carefree.

"I haven't heard anything yet. Maybe he's…" The girl stopped mid-sentence and mid-bite. Her sugar fuzzy brain picked up some sort of signal. Forcing her brain to cooperate she turned serious at the green alien. "How do you know about Aoyama-kun's problem?"

Caught by surprise, sweat started dropping everywhere from a panicking Kishu. "Well… I… I just…"

"The others know about this?" The redhead asked accusingly.

"No… I don't think they do…"

"So how do you, alone, know about it? Ah! Have you been following us?" His panic rose, afraid that her brain would do the right connections.

Watching her prey freeze in fear before her, Ichigo found herself swallowing with pride and her brain continued to work feeling that there was still something to be understood. Unfortunately for her, the redhead decided to reward herself with a piece of cake. As soon as the delicious treat filled her senses, her brain shut down and no further deductions were made.

"You shouldn't do that! That's not nice!" Ichigo cheerfully singed.

Kishu jerked back having been expecting a blow or a shouting but when nothing happened he turned back to her, blinking in surprise. "…Koneko-chan?" But Ichigo was back to eating happily.

Sighing in relief, having understood what happened, Kishu returned as well to watch her eat.

"Ahhhh! It's so niiice!"

"That's right, Koneko-chan~~!"

"What were we talking about just now?"

"Eh… Nothing… Just that you were stressed! Eat more cake!"

"Okay!" And the two stood there in a blissful atmosphere for some time more.

Ichigo quickly finished the last bits of the eggplant dessert and proceeded to devour the remains from the blue gateau. And as she was cupping a spoon full of cake, the blue coverture dripped painting her cheeks in a bluish color.

"Oopsie!" Ichigo was lost to the goodness of sugar as she giggled at her own clumsiness.

"Don't waste food, Koneko-chan!" Kishu chuckled amused by her sugar enhanced giddiness. She just laughed and continued to eat without being a tiny bit concerned about her tidiness.

Sighing, the green haired alien softly rubbed it from her cheeks. "Here, don't waste it. You have to eat all to become a big, healthy Mew when you grown up!" He joked, showing her the chocolate stained fingers.

She was dumbstruck by a moment but as soon as she understood his joke she laughed but stopped, looking thoughtful. She smiled to herself. "I'll be nice to you. I'm going to share my snack! You can have that! That way we'll both be big Mews when we grow up! But the rest is all mine!" She said while protecting the rest of the cake.

Bewildered by her current lack of reason Kishu licked his fingers, trying to decide which part of her speech was sugar powered, while she eat the remaining cake showing the truth behind her statements.

They would have remained in that enjoyable moment if they hadn't heard the sound of wood cracking. Alien and girl turned in time to see an enraged Aoyama leave.

"Ahhhh… Again…" Ichigo sighed.

Kishu looked at her feeling puzzled. "Aren't you going after him?" The redhead just shook her head. She wasn't in the mood for that.

"There's no point." She got up, a bit of cake still in the plate. "Sorry. I lost my appetite."

Shaking invisible crumbs from her uniform she left the kitchen looking for some air and leaving a confused Kishu behind. She was feeling immensely sad in that moment.

Her aimless state led her to the outside of the Café. Plopping down on one of the exterior tables on the back of the building Ichigo released an exasperated sigh.

" 'something troubling you?" Sitting behind a tree, Ichigo hadn't seen Zakuro until she made her presence evident.

"Ah, Zakuro-san! Yeah… I guess you could say that… Don't worry about it."

The purple Mew however simply took a seat by her side. Several minutes passed in silence until Ichigo turned to her senpai. "Zakuro-san, can I ask you something?" The older girl smiled reassuringly and waited patiently. The redhead rolled her fingers nervously. "Not going into a lot of details… Aoyama-kun hasn't been doing so well lately. But things were going so well between us… No… That's not really it. Kishu… I…"

Ichigo scratched the top of her head in frustration. Until that point she really hadn't really thought about what really was upsetting her. Zakuro on the other hand was taking a good guess.

"… I just though…!" Ichigo suddenly yelled surprising both of them. "For some reason… Me and Aoyama-kun, we have been feeling… Not that Kishu's presence is important… But more like… It should just be there. And I just thought… since we had reached an agreement about it, that things would work after a while. That somehow things were going to fall into place! Kishu and Aoyama-kun were hanging along so well. And… Gosh! I don't even know what I saying anymore!" The girl was near tears at this point and she grabbed Zakuro's hands in despair. "Am I a bad person? Is that why this is happening? I… I just felt like… I didn't want to shone away Kishu! But it was just friendship. I tried… Kishu tried! It was going well! Aoyama-kun was super supportive of it! And now he had to be sick like this! How can he be happy and upset about it at the same time! What should I do?"

Zakuro softly petted the poor crying girl in her lap. She pondered her words very carefully. She wasn't sure if she should break the others' trust and tell Ichigo about the connection but there seemed to something else about it in there. "Ichigo, listen." She waited until the Mew leader had calmed down a bit before continuing. "You seem to be under a lot of stress. I'm sure you have been concerning yourself with this for a long time but listen. You just said it yourself: Aoyama-san is sick. I don't really understand to which point but I already noticed his changes of mood. So you can't see this as a 'Have I done something wrong?' situation. Do you understand?" The crying girl nodded, her face completely covered by Zakuro's skirt. "Although…" Maybe Zakuro could just hint her without spilling the beans. "Are you sure that it was just friendship between the two of you?"

"...Eh?"

"Between you and Kishu."

A short pause issued but then Ichigo started crying to Zakuro's skirt again. "Of course not! Kishu is still Kishu! I know he likes me despite all. But he tries! He really tries!" The redhead straightened back up looking for something to clean her running nose with. She mumbled 'thanks' to Zakuro's extended handkerchief.

"What about you? Do you like Kishu just as a friend?" The purple mew pressed.

The other girl dried her tears and seemed quite thoughtful. "I don't think I need any more than that." Then she looked very confused, as if those words sounded strange coming from her mouth.

Zakuro's sigh went unnoticed by her as she was struggling with her own thoughts. The purple Mew wondered in curiosity about the type of feelings created by the Verbindung. It was different from a crush or a fling. It was a feeling that could create deep jealousy and possessiveness; but it wasn't like the regular thing, where there had to be something physical or romantic.

"Ichigo… Why do you want Aoyama-san to be your boyfriend?"

The redhead was broken out of her thoughts by the question. "I always liked Aoyama-kun." She answered without hesitation.

Ichigo watched with interest as Zakuro seemed to go deep in to thought. But as she about to ask her what was wrong, Kishu appeared. "Koneko-chan! Ah, there you are! Look, I think with should look for Romeu. Check on him."

Ichigo looked at Zakuro who gestured for her to do so and soon she walked inside to change and go with Kishu to look for Aoyama.

The purple mew sighed. Her advising job wasn't easy.

"Zakuro-san. Can we talk?" She straightened, readying herself for another counseling session.

Lettuce took Ichigo's former seat and looked seriously at Zakuro. "Zakuro-san, I'm sorry but I couldn't help listen to your conversation." She wasn't fidgeting or looking nervous; just serious.

Their talk was momentarily paused so that both could look in time to see Kishu flying away with Ichigo on his arms looking for her boyfriend from the air.

Zakuro was the first to look away. She studied the girl she first thought had come to ask about love troubles.

"I think… It's time to tell them the truth." Lettuce slowly turned to her friend. And inside, Zakuro was all cheers about that plan.

"Maybe that's for the best." Shirogane suddenly called while crossing the door. For some reason unknown to Zakuro, Lettuce turned completely red and refused to look at him.

"I guess I'll go look for them." The blond yawned somewhat before departing.

"Zakuro-san… Actually, there was something else I had come to talk to you…" The older mew sighed in defeat. In her mind she was screaming: 'I knew it'.

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Meanwhile, Ichigo was running around near a construction site. For some reason she had a feeling that Aoyama-kun was near that area. Kishu had gone up in the air again hopping to achieve a more panoramic vision.

She stopped near an old abandoned school building whose side had almost but collapsed. She looked around one more time trying to make her breath even once more.

"Aoyama-kun…"

"Oy! Koneko-chan!" Kishu descended near her. "No luck either, uh?" He added with a sad look.

Ichigo thought that he looked as much as dejected as her. Thinking back to the weird rant she had just had with Zakuro, she wondered about Aoyama-kun's and Kishu's relationship. They had become friends so quickly. And Kishu seemed to care about the other even on that moment.

"Don't worry. We will find him." Kishu nodded absently rubbing her hand on his shoulder.

Then he seemed to look at the situation. "Koneko-chan… Why are **you** trying to comfort **me**?" She looked surprised and in fact she hadn't thought about it.

"The world is upside down already, why not go with the flow?" She laughed followed by him, tension leaving their bodies.

"I.C.H.I.G.O.!"

They jumped away in shock as the person they were looking for suddenly appeared and jumped to attack them.

For a moment everything was confusing and Ichigo only had time to dodge as the Blue Knight's attack passed right by her side. Dizzy and confused, she only had time to understand that his target had been Kishu who had been standing right beside her. She watched in horror as the Blue Knight attacked Kishu.

"Stop! Aoyama-kun! Stop!"

But he didn't seem to listen to her. He kept throwing swings and blows at the green alien that was doing everything in his power to block him.

"Stop I said!" Ichigo didn't thought twice about it and soon she was grabbing to the Knight's arm refusing to let go.

"Let go!" Blinded by rage he shook her off harshly.

The three of them stopped in shock when the hitting sound echoed. The Blue Knight stopped, looking transfixed and his transformation disappeared returning to be Aoyama. Kishu was just staring, shocked beyond belief. Ichigo clenched her red cheek that was quickly turning purple.

"I… Ichi…" Masaya tried to reach her but she just stepped back, away from him.

Suddenly she started crying and turning into a cat she disappeared inside the remains of the old school building.

It was too surreal. Aoyama was still shocked about having hit Ichigo so only Kishu jumped in surprise when Shirogane spoke. "We need to go get her. She could get hurt."

He approached the small hole where Ichigo had gone missing. "Small. You stay here, I'll go get her."

"… Eh? Wait! What are you doing here? And why…" Kishu quickly approached the hole too in the right moment as Shirogane transformed into his cat form.

The blond meant to enter the hole but Kishu spoke. "Wait. Let me go with you."

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**A.N. The lack of reviews made me a bit sad but I finally posted this. Do you like the small drama? And the fluff? What is Kishu going to do? (Most of you already guessed of course) More coming after this!**


	10. Chapter Eight: Let's talk

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, it belongs to Reiko Yoshida (I finally know it :P).**

**A.N.: I'm happy that so many of liked last chapter! My deadlines are all messed up so I'm sorry for the delay. I've been down lately with exams and grades and soon college! But I finally recovered my plot powers! **

**Most of you probably already have a small idea of what is going to happen, so… let's see if you're right.**

**Since I have so many reviews to answer this time (I'm thrilled!) I'll put them in the bottom so that you can start reading right away. Enjoy.**

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_It was too surreal. Aoyama was still shocked about having hit Ichigo so only Kishu jumped in surprise when Shirogane spoke. "We need to go get her. She could get hurt."_

_He approached the small hole where Ichigo had gone missing. "Small. You stay here, I'll go get her."_

"… _Eh? Wait! What are you doing here? And why…" Kishu quickly approached the hole too in the right moment as Shirogane transformed into his cat form. _

_The blond meant to enter the hole but Kishu spoke. "Wait. Let me go with you."_

At this, Alto raised is eyebrow in surprise. He was curious as to how the alien intended to fit in the cat sized hole. Kishu took the other's momentarily stop as a confirmation so he just did what he had to do. No point keeping the secret forever.

A greenish light involved him as he too begun to transform. His size diminished and his shape changed until he became a cat. A small cat with greenish fur and amber eyes.

"Don't just stand there, Blondie! Let's go find Ichigo!" Kishu nearly had to head-butt a stunned Ryou out of the way as the blond was staring at him in shock.

Masaya was also in shock, but for different reasons. His earlier actions were replaying over and over on his head as he tried to deny them. His inner turmoil was enough to make him not notice what was going on just a few meters away, where two cats, a grey and a green, entered the collapsed building.

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The cement and the beams had created an intricate precarious up ways maze. The air was moist, most likely due to some leak on the collapsed wall, making all scents merge and making then unrecognizable.

Without much choice, slowly the two explorers started climbing. Once in a while a more unstable boulder or beam would shake under them but their pace little changed. None spoke to the other and gradually the time passed without signs of Ichigo.

In the dark labyrinth only some lonely sun rays survived giving the impression of golden pillars cutting through the shadows.

'Oh? What's that?' Kishu noticed at the distance what looked like a footprint from a cat. Swiftly jumping from a boulder to other he approached it.

"Kishu! Wait!" But it was too late. The wall under the alien suddenly gave away making everything shake around them.

Kishu managed to jump aside but the shaking still lasted for some minutes. Even when it was over, dust and rubble kept falling making them cough and struggle to breathe.

"This all seems unstable." Alto whispered. "Be more careful! Don't make loud noises either!"

Huffing, the green alien silently kept following the grey cat through the darkness; and soon they reached a bifurcation and without much of a choice they went separate ways, Alto to the right and Kishu to the left. After a while the green furred cat stopped listening to his companion and the world became silent.

The alien's path soon turned into a tunnel and he marveled on the complexity that the collapse of a mere wall had created. There were still no signs of Ichigo when Kishu left the passageway. What extended in front of him was an abyss with only a large beam that allowed him to cross.

The wood cringed under his paws but felt sturdy enough for the greenish cat so he confidently started crossing. Halfway through the void his ears picked up a soft sound on the other side. Anxiously, he pushed forward.

Ichigo had been hiding under a small cave like formation on the wall. Her sobs were nearly gone by the time she was found.

"Ichigo! Are you okay?" Kishu carefully approached her. Seeing that she wasn't responding quickly enough he started panicking, thinking that she had gotten hurt somehow. "Oi! Are you okay? Ichigo! This place isn't safe; we need to get out of here! Come on, Ichigo!"

The black cat rubbed the tears from her eyes and looked at her savior. Confusion was apparent on her face. "Hibiki…?"

Kishu flinched remembering that she didn't know the truth. "It doesn't matter now! Ichigo lets go!"

'Eh? His voice sounds familiar. Where have I heard it?' But the stubborn dark cat shook her head vigorously. "No." She didn't felt ready to face the world yet.

In his anxiety the alien was growing impatient. "Ichigo!" Unfortunately he shouted louder than he should and soon the structure was shaking again threatening to send them to the bottomless pit under them and shaking Ichigo out of her lethargy.

"Oooiiiii! This is collapsing! Run!" Alto screamed at them on the other side of the cliff.

"Go, Koneko-chan!" Ichigo was pushed forward and forced to run over the wood beam as pebble and rubble fell on her head. Behind her Hibiki kept pushing her.

Soon they reached Alto that lead them quickly through the falling ceiling. The paths were falling apart and some were gone making their escape rote unrecognizable. But luckily, the cats managed to exit the maze, covered in dust and dirt, on time to watch the building collapse even more than before.

"Baka." Alto half teased.

But before Ichigo could argue back steps approached them fast. "Ichigo!" Aoyama ran to them not in shock anymore. "Ichigo… I can't believe I… I'm so sorry! Ichigo! How could I do such a thing?" And he once more collapsed on his knees crying.

Sighing, Alto and Ichigo returned to their human forms and the redhead softly rubbed his shaking shoulders. Ryu just watched, wondering when she had learned to control her transformation.

"Aoyama-kun… It's okay. I overreacted. Aoyama-kun is sick, it's not your fault. Shirogane will help you. Come on, lets go home." Ichigo tried to lift her boyfriend up to lead him away but a strong hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"It would be better if he came with me." Shirogane calmly stated.

"But…"

"I need to run some tests immediately." The blond awkwardly scratched his hair. "I have a theory about this but I don't have any proof. I want to explain it to you. Kishu, you too." He turned to the greenish cat that was trying to escape unnoticed.

"Eh? Kishu?" Redhead questioned in surprise as Shirogane picked up her pet by the neck.

Hibiki threw Ryou a murderous look before puffing himself to his alien form.

"Aaahhhhh! Nooooo!" Ichigo screeched at had developed in from of her eyes. Kishu turned around trying to avoid her.

"What…?" Shirogane and Aoyama just looked from one to another. "Never mind. Just listen to what I have to say…"

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"Where is your so called leader? I have information I need to discuss with him." Pai breathe for the fourth time in exasperation.

"One-chan is not here! Come back later-nanoda! Ah, thank you Taru-Taru." Pudding answered him cheerfully as she picked up the scissors her husband was handing her.

The purple alien rubbed the bridge of his nose before trying to calmly explain himself. "I meant the blond boy. That red haired girl couldn't lead herself out of trouble even if her life depended on it. Oh, guess what! It does. Never mind that. Where is he?"

"They're all gone Pai. They all went to look for that girl's boyfriend or something!" Taruto told him.

"Look for him? Is there something wrong?"

"Who knows! Pudding! Trim that side more!"

"… Fine. When he returns, tell him that I have urgent things to discuss." And Pai teleported away from the Café.

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"… So… me, Ichigo… and Kishu are all connected. That makes sense… in a way." The new info settled without problems within the trio and Shirogane sighed in relief.

"Definitely explains why we have been having this need to be together." The green alien seemed amused even.

"And that is what's causing these attacks? It's just jealousy?" Masaya put his hands to the head in bewilderment.

"That's my theory." The blond nodded gravely.

"I'm sorry but I must disagree." Kishu dismissed to everyone's surprise. "You see… from what I understood from Pai's explanations, the _Verbindung_ creates feelings of care and affection. It definitely explains why I and Romeowere getting along so well! It wouldn't create feelings of jealousy! It would push them aside actually! If we are forced to like each other then it wouldn't make sense to hate each other, don't you think?" When he stopped everyone silently assimilated what he had just said.

"Damn! That means that I'm back to square one! Damnit! Aoyama-san, come with me, I need to retest you!" Shirogane stomped away angrily, pulling the poor teen with him.

"I feel bad for disappointing Blondie. And poor Romeo still doesn't know what has gotten into him!"

"Aoyama-kun…" Ichigo sighed sadly as her boyfriend disappeared turning a corner. Then suddenly she turned to Kishu her memory telling her that there was something that she should remember. Then it hit her. "Aaahhh! You!" She pointed accusingly at the quickly retreating alien. "You pervert, stalker freak! I'll get you!"

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Momomiya Ichigo, 17 years old, facing a reality she doesn't wish to.

It was bad enough that Kishu had managed to teleport away at the last moment and she hadn't had the chance to murder him, but finding him as soon as she returned home after such an exhausting day, in his cat form! On her mother's lap! As if he belonged there! All happy being petted! Someone was going to die!

"Ah, Ichigo! Okaeri! Do you want a snack?" Her mother, oblivious to her daughter's increasing bad mood, cheerfully asked.

Ichigo's answer was stomping furiously to the kitchen and devouring the small cake as if he was the culprit.

"Oh dear… Ichigo-chan? Is something upsetting you?" Sakura inquires her.

Still halfway through swallowing the dessert Ichigo glares heavily at her "pet". "You and… Hibiki, get along very well don't you." It wasn't a question.

Still petting the greenish cat, Sakura stopped in surprise. "Eh? Well, yes… Ichigo-chan… does it upset you? Even if it's your pet, can't I play with it?"

"That's not what I meant! Why do you get along so well?" The red head was practically sending him daggers as she planned how to get rid of him with little suspicion.

"Hibiki-chan keeps me company!" Ichigo's mother stood up cradling Kishu like a baby.

"Company?"

"Of course! Papa is always at work! And Ichigo never has time! Of course Mama would get lonely!" The red-haired woman dramatically spoke. "And he's just so cute when we are in the kitchen! It actually looks like he understands what I'm doing!" She happily cheered.

"That's because he does." Ichigo grumbled.

"Eh? Did you say something?"

"No." And she stomped to her room while glaring at everything, scaring her dad as he passed her making him roll down the stairs in fear.

"Mama! Ichigo is being scary!" She could still hear him at the distance.

On her room she locked the door, even if it was actually pointless, the guy she wanted to avoid could easily teleport there, and dropped face down on her bed. 'If mom likes Hibiki that much, it will be hard getting rid of him.' She though as she waited.

And as expected, soon a soft sound which she knew was connected with teleportation, was heard in the small room.

For a moment none spoke, waiting to see if the other would. But after a while, Kishu seemed to become impatient and decided to be the first to start.

"I'm sorry Koneko-chan. I didn't want to lie to you." She couldn't see his face but she could hear the regret in his voice.

Breathing deeply and forcing her anger to drop, the red head turned to face the floating alien. "Why? Why did you do this?"

"I didn't actually plan to come to your house… You just picked me up!" He scratched his green hair trying to shake the awkwardness out of him. "I just wanted to be closer to you."

"I thought that we had worked this out! I thought that you were trying to be my friend!" Ichigo managed to hush, trying to alert her parents. She felt like throwing him her pillow.

"I am! But this is different!" He sighed as if he was tired. "If there isn't a certain level of proximity between us, then the _Verbindung_won't heal properly and we might get sick again!"

"…Still!" She wanted to be angrier at him. She wanted things to be easier. But nothing is.

"Look… Just pretend that I'm your cat. Nothing needs to change." He pleaded. Things had been going great, why was everything falling apart like that?

"Kishu… You know that I won't be able to. Things already changed." Suddenly she was feeling cold so she wrapped her arms around herself trying to shake the bad feelings away. "Besides… do you think I'll be comfortable knowing that you are here and that you are watching me all the time! What about when I'm bathing? Or when I'm getting dressed?"

His amber eyes narrowed as he frowned deeply angry. "You think that I would do that to you? I had tons of opportunities when you didn't know and I didn't do it!"

She had to agree. Several times she had asked him if he wanted to bath with her but he had refused. And he was never present when she was getting dressed, as if he always disappeared at that precise time.

"Ichigo, still don't understand do you?" Now kneeling by her bedside he smiled softly at the sight of a confused Ichigo. "Having fought Deep Blue, the months I spent on my planet trying to understand what I had done to you, this connection that we have… I've grown a lot. I love you Ichigo. More than ever. But after all this time and all the pain I had to endure… I understand better; what means to love someone." He got up and slowly walked to the door unlocking it before turning back to the girl on the bed. "I won't force my feelings on you anymore, Ichigo. What I want more than anything now, is to see you happy. But most of all… I want to be by your side. Even if just as a friend. Or a cat."

Ichigo that had been unconsciously clutching her pillow felt the tension leave her as the minutes passed and Kishu's words resonated in her head. Finally the leaving alien decided against it at the last minute and turned to her grinning. "Ah! But don't think that I've given up Koneko-chan~~! Somehow, that connection thing as given me hope that one day Koneko-chan will come to me by herself!"

And falling to make a mean face, Ichigo threw her pillow at him both grinning and Kishu turning into a cat and running down stairs.

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**Animelover4798 – **Don't worry.Of course you don't have to like him! Idon't like him either :P I was just saying. Sorry it took me so much to update, despite your (truly adored) demands for more. I hope it will take less to come out now.

**Phoenixica24 – **I hope this chapter answered your question (which you probably knew or had guessed the answer to :P). Glad to see a new face/name!

**Wolves Run Free – **Neither the anime or the manga ever specified but let's just assume that either he knew or had guessed from his own transformations. I like your name (silly smile).

**kookies-kisshu – **Don't worry your English is good. And yes, it will soon become a Kish/Ichigo fic. I'm very happy that you feel this way about the fic, I couldn't ask for anything better!

**Arkie – **Arkie, Arkie, Arkie… Where do I start with you? For the beginning I suppose :P. First: I went to my email one day and suddenly I had a series of warnings about reviews, a whole bunch of them! First I was like 0_0 and then I went to the site to see what was going on and I became like XD. Thank you. It made my day in a way that you can't imagine.

Second: After your last review a few days later I actually went back to my "plans" to check if I hadn't made myself clear already and I reach the conclusion that I hadn't. I'm very thankful for that. So I changed a bit this chapter so that I could answer you. I hope that it was made clear.

Third: I LOVE YOU LOTS! 


	11. Chapter Nine: Lets take a day off!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, it belongs to Reiko Yoshida.**

**A.N.: I came through these means to tell you that I won't promise to be a good authoress from now on; because to tell you the truth, I'm awful during the summer! I just never feel like doing anything! **

**I'm done with my exams and feel totally drained, miserable, anguished and angry; so I decided to use these couple of days to take a break to keep me from murdering everyone on this fic.**

**Japanese Glossary:**

**Itekimasu – I'm going (when someone leaves)**

**Iterashai – Have a nice trip (when someone leaves)**

**Tadaima – I'm home**

**Okaeri – Welcome home**

**Oyatsu – Dinner**

**Oyasumi – Good night**

**Ohayo – Good morning**

**Yada - No **

**Hai – Yes**

**One-chan/san/sama – Sister/Older sister**

**Oni-chan/san/sama – Brother/Older brother**

**Santa-san – Santa Claus**

**I suddenly felt like adding more Japanese to this. :P**

**Important Notice: Considering that half of my fics are MA, there is a chance my account will be shut down. If this happens, either I'll open another under another name and post this fic solely (it's the only I have on this gender), or I'll move definitely to yourfanfiction - dot - com **.** Please look me up if it happens (nick will most definitely be different). **

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Ichigo sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time that day.

Time seemed to have dragged for her as she waited for news about her boyfriend currently staying 20 feet below her. Any type of news! Nearly a week had gone by since the last time she had seen Aoyama-kun. Shirogane took off with him to the lab but she heard no word from him about it. Neither good or bad.

Not that she hadn't tried to question him; but with the arrival of December the Café had turned unexpectedly busy and something always seemed to turn up when she managed to catch him. So she remained uninformed.

"One-chan! What are you doing-nanoda?" Pudding jumped from behind her making Ichigo shriek in surprise. "Christmas is on its way! Be more cheerful-nanoda!" The cheeky girl enthusiastically shouted.

"Pudding…" She had forgotten how the Mew Café was passionate about Christmas. It was barely the beginning of December and they already had their costumes on! "I'm sorry. It's just that… things haven't been well lately."

Pudding watched a little more seriously as her friend seemed to be on the verge of tears. That didn't suit anyone around this time of the year! "One-chan… You look tired! Why not taking a break-nanoda?"

"Eh?"

"Pudding will take care of it! Go take a breather-nanoda!" Without waiting for an answer the blond girl pushed her leader to the dressing room. "In fact: take the rest of the day off! Pudding insists-nanoda!" And promptly skipped away to serve more clients.

Ah, yes! Christmas was a time for good deeds; more than usual! Not that it wasn't still quite far, but she could practically taste it!

"Pudding is a very good girl-nanoda! Santa-san is always very proud of her!" And more cheerful than ever she began serving clients with double performances. Christmas was also a wonderful time to receive double tips!

"Pudding! Help me with cakes!"

"Haaaiii!" Leaving her giant ball with a fabulous double flip the blonde quickly joined her wonderful husband.

"You're in a good mood. Did something happen?"

"Eh eh! Pudding just did a good deed! Santa-san will reward her greatly-nanoda!" She was practically beaming.

"Eh… That's right… Human do believe that nonsense. But you know…"

"No, no, no!" The girl cut him off. "Pudding isn't listening! Lalalalala! Not listening!" She sung while covering her ears.

"You…"

Thankfully Mint decided to show up that moment. Her new wig was slightly on the side showing just the enough for everyone to know that she was now a bald girl.

"What are you doing? There are costumers waiting! And where is Ichigo! Someone needs to take care of all these costumers and it won't be me!" She claimed still trying to look royal, oblivious to the looks of pity and mockery.

"Ah, Pudding said that she could go home-nanoda! One-chan didn't look so good!" Pudding, now with her hands out of her ears, smiled proudly.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhhh! How dare you! There are people working their socks off over here! This is no time to be slacking off!" Waves of rage irradiated from the blue haired girl as the costumers turned around to watch her in curiosity.

"Well, old hag, maybe you could help them. I don't see you doing anything!" Taruto quickly dismissed her, furiously trying to pass her anger barrier; his ice cakes were melting quickly. "Besides, don't come to take it on us! Pudding works the hardest here! And she rarely gets a day off!" He clenched his fists indignant at her hypocritical attitude.

"Why you little…" Mint was preparing to strike him when a brilliant idea clicked inside her head. She was sure to get revenge for her beautiful hair. "You know… I guess you're right!" She cheerfully singed.

The two youngsters looked at her in shock; hell was bound to freeze if Mint was agreeing with anyone, apart from Zakuro.

"Yes! Christmas is coming! Time for joy, presents and world peace!" She nearly jumped to the ceiling while dramatically spinning around. "But you know what time is it also?" She stopped in front of them and evilly smiled inside her mind. When they failed to answer, still struck by shock and fear, she laughed giddily. "Well, it's time for lovers!" She turned at them expectantly but the two remained silent. Not amused by their lack of response, Mint fought to keep her smile. "You need to go on a date!"

Taruto seemed to be the first to recover. "A d-d-d-da-da-da-te!" His face gained a deep red color and a small thread of smoke could be seen leaving his ears.

"Yay-nanoda! Pudding would love to go on a date with Taru-Taru!" Pudding was softly hopping with enthusiasm as she watched her husband expectantly.

He turned to her, still a bit reddish, and gave her a sympathetic smile. "But Pudding… we never have time for that. As soon as we finish work we need to get home to take care of your siblings!"

The blonde girl lost her cheeky smile and soon she was looking very glum. Mint behind them smiled even more. 'They took the bait!' "You know…" She let them refocus their attention on her before continuing. "If you left right away… I don't know… Maybe you would have time to go on a date." The blue haired girl clapped her hands trying to look excited, as if the idea had just occurred to her. "I know! Why don't you just do it and I'll cover up for you! Go on your date!"

Seconds ticked as the couple and Mint stared at each other. Mint strained to keep her smile as she began to fear that they wouldn't be tricked. But soon Pudding was dragging Taruto to the dressing room yelling "thanks" at Mint, and the rich girl sighed in relief.

"See, Taru-Taru! This is Santa-san's present for Pudding! Let's go-nanoda!" And the two quickly left the Café.

Mint kept chuckling even after they left, happy that her evil little plan had worked. Soon Zakuro and Lettuce begun to experience difficulties on providing service to all those clients. But an hour or so still passed before they realized that they were alone. Mint served one table as well, just to look like she cared.

"Where are Pudding and Taruto?" Lettuce asked her when she finally caught her by the kitchen door.

"And Ichigo? I can't see her anywhere!" Zakuro also showed up looking slightly out of breath.

Her plan was bearing fruits; Mint smiled. But before she could tell them, a ghost showed up behind Zakuro. Lettuce screamed and hugged Mint as Zakuro jumped to the side ready to attack whatever was behind her.

"What's with all this ruckus? Stop screaming; my head hurts." Shirogane, paler than a sheet, looking more dead than alive, mumbled while swaging dangerously trying to keep the noise out.

"Shirogane-san?"

"God! What happened to you?"

The blond didn't seem to listen to them as he fell to the side and let the wall support him.

"Oiiii! Blondie! You look terrible!" Kishu's head pooped from inside the kitchen. "Pretty Boy told me to tell you that somehow we ran out of eggs."

Ryou pull the blond strands from his face as he regained some of his strength. He was feeling so tired. "That's not that bad. We can still…"

"And milk. And berries. Oh! And fresh cream!" Kishu added.

Shirogane looked taken aback for a moment but he struggled to maintain his composure. Although, before he had time to make any decisions, Mint pulled him by his sleeve.

"But that's not the worst! Ichigo went home and those two brats ran off to go on a date!" She clanged to him pretending to be very upset.

The blond couldn't hold a big yawn, and noticeably completely out of it, Shirogane just faced them. "… I guess that we'll need to close business for today."

"Whaaaaatttttt!" The three waitresses and Kishu chorused. "But…" Mint was disappointed that her plan to get those three in trouble had failed.

"Just keep anymore clients from entering and dispatch these as quickly as you can. Then tell Keiichiro to meet me. I'm going down stairs to (yawn)…" He yawned loudly as he rubbed the golden field on top of his head and looked more and more ready to fall to the side. "Ah! And one more thing. (yawn) We will be closed tomorrow as well. Make sure Ichigo and the others get the message." And with that Ryou left to the lower floor once more.

"But!" The blue girl stomped her foot, frustrated by her failure.

"Oh! Mint-san, it actually looks like you wanted them to get in trouble." Zakuro bent over the younger girl and carefully whispered on her ear.

"Eeeeeeee!" Mint squeaked and jumped forward. "It-it must be your impression One-sama!" She quickly tried to dismiss it.

"Is that so… Well, then… Shall we go shopping after we are done with work?" Zakuro bathed Mint with her movie-star smile. The poor girl just nodded passionately, completely forgetting about her newest revenge plans.

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"Hey! Don't you have the feeling that there was something we should have told that blond guy?" Taruto turned to his right so that he could face Pudding as he questioned her.

The girl thought about it for a while looking very focused but soon she gave up. "I don't know! Do you think it was important?" She merrily asked him.

The brunet was going to answer her when he noticed that they had reached their destination. "Ah! We're here!"

"Yay! It's been so long since Pudding has been to the amusement park! It's super nanonanoda!" The girl ran forward dragging a human Taruto behind her because at some point she had managed to link their hands.

The BonbonCherryPancakeLand opened up for them as they promptly paid for their tickets and embraced the joyful atmosphere of the carnival on the cold winter's air.

Inside their heavy coats and warm scarves they ran around in between balloons and giant fur animals, unfazed by the cold. Pudding kept dragging the brunet around, stopping once in a while to demand going on some ride or to play on some stand. He ended up winning her a giant monkey and two free smoothies.

Without much of a choice, Taruto let himself be dragged around. Pudding was looking very happy and he wanted her be like that. But he soon regretted his decision as the monkey like girl soon decided that they need to visit all the hardcore rides.

The poor alien boy saw his life pass by in front of his eyes as the fell down the five giant roller coasters, sailed through the three haunted houses and swung on the several pendulum rides. By the end of it he was looking like a ghost of what he used to be.

"Taru-Taru… You don't look so good! Ah! Pudding will get you a drink! That's right! Wait here-nanoda!" And she cheerfully skipped away.

The small alien sighed in relief for the little breather and leaned further into the wooden bench he was sitting on. The sun shinned high in the sky bringing a little warm to the people on the ground. The air was chilly but no breeze blew by. It was very nice, especially after all those scary rides. The brunet closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax a bit. Everything was fast and exciting alongside Pudding; it was strange to have such a calm moment all of the sudden.

The minutes passed and the alien, now looking human, felt sleep taking over. Jumping away from the bench and hoping to scare it away, he slowly walked around the small square they had stopped at and watched his surroundings.

Behind the bench he had been sitting on, was a big water fountain were a skinny naughty looking girl threatened to pour water on top of people, not seeming to notice that all the water was escaping through a hole in the back of her bucket. Taruto wondered if she knew that she had actually no water and was just trying to prank people.

His eyes left the statue to watch the shops around. One was selling candy and lollipops of giant proportions, other, windmills and strange toys that went accordingly to the theme of the park, and some other had costumes. The rest were restaurants and that was pretty much all that was on the plaza.

Scratching the back of his head, Taruto contoured the circular fountain until he was watching the back of the mischievous girl. She didn't seem to be paying attention to that part so maybe she didn't know about the escaping water. But what called his attention was the man sitting against the fountain's wall, painting people.

His hands stroked the cloth without hesitation leaving behind only the image he was visualizing. Taruto marveled on his technique as faces and smiles appeared as if by magic.

"Wow! He's very good! Too bad that these kind of thing is always so expensive!" The brunet bounced away stunned by Pudding's sudden return. "Here, Taru-Taru! It was so hard to find a machine-nanoda!" She gave him his can of juice while sipping on her own. He thanked her, drinking from his and then frowning at the frosty temperature.

They slowly walked away from the painter, the young alien still thinking about it. It would be nice if they had a something special like that to remember the day. He wanted to give something like that.

"Taru-Taru? What's wrong?" Pudding asked him, amused by his unusual thoughtful look.

Then a sudden idea clicked on his mind. Grinning madly at her, it was his time to pull her around. "I have a great idea!" He led them to a dark corner behind a small stall. "Wait here." And handing her, his drink he turned into an alien and promptly teleport away. Less than a minute after he was back. Pudding tried to take peak at it and discover what he was holding; but he simply picked his can back and grinned back at her.

Turning human again he walked them back to the fountain. Pudding just let him do as he wanted, happy that he was holding her hand on his own but seeming unaware of it.

As soon as they arrived, Taruto picked a nice place and told her to sit. When she did, he pulled his sketchbook and pencil from inside his jacket and began to sketch her. His face was soon grimacing with focus: his eyes narrowing and tongue sticking out; making the blond girl laugh silently at his efforts.

The remained like that for the next couple of hours until the air was colder, people started leaving for dinner and the ground around Taruto was covered in crumbed paper balls. It was only then that the boy got up with a victory sign.

Pudding's feet were slightly numb and she was shivering, but the silly drawing of her filled her with warm. It wasn't the slightest close to the painter's drawings: it was full of smudges were Taruto had tried to erase his mistakes and some lines were crocked, without the firmness of a professional hand, rather filled with hesitation; but it was definitely Pudding sitting by the fountain. And that was worth everything.

Silently picking up her husband's hand, whose embarrassment of his previous actions was slowly catching up, and happily walked them home.

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Ichigo had been wandering through town ever since she had left the Café that morning. She lazily watched the shop windows and its contents, not searching for anything in particular. What she wanted was in the lower levels of the Mew Mew Café anyways.

Night was falling quickly due to the winter season and the temperature was dropping fast, but she didn't rush her steps. Walking aimlessly she could only hope that her feet were able to find the way on their own accord.

So abstracted she was that she had to stop in utter surprise at the sight of familiar faces. Pudding and Taruto slowly walked together, dead to the world surrounding them, linked by their hands.

She didn't stop them. Neither thought she about talking to them. She just kept going. She tried not to fell envious for them.

And finally she miraculously managed to return home.

"Ichigo-chan? Okaeri! Dinner will be ready soon so go clean up!" Her mother told her rounding the kitchen corner.

The redhead sighed as she climbed the stairs to pick her warm pajamas. Why was she feeling so sad lately? It wasn't like she hadn't been in similar situations before!

"So why?" She yelled loudly as she dipped inside the warm bath waters.

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The bath hadn't helped her relax at all! She sighed frustrated one more time as she returned to the living room.

"Ah! Koneko-chan! Okaeri! Didn't saw you return!" Hibiki, aka Kishu, joined her on the couch, but on the further end.

"Eh… Tadaima."

"Why the long face, Koneko-chan? We're having fish for dinner!" The green cat jumped excitedly on the fluffy cushions.

"Humn… Fish…" Ichigo couldn't help but let her mind wander at the delicious treat. It was short lived though, as the gloom feelings that had been filling her returned once more.

"Koneko-chan…" Hibiki worried about the girl's sudden mood; and she hadn't really talked to him that much the last week so he couldn't comfort her. Even if they were living so close, there was still a small for contact if he wanted to help her heal. Warily, he slowly approached her.

"Ichigo! Oyatsu!" Sakura yelled from the kitchen making Kishu jump in the air in surprise and land on the floor half dead.

"Eh? Kishu?"

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"Aaaahhhhh! That was yummy!" Ichigo stretched happily plopping down back on the couch, feeling better with her stomach full.

"Ichigo! Don't forget that your father and I will be going to Atami to see my parents. If you don't want to go make sure that you do the chores." Sakura reminded as she passed the stretched form on the couch.

"But, Mom! I have work!"

"No you don't. Your friend called earlier and asked me to tell you that the Café is closed tomorrow. If you had a day off why didn't you come home?" The lady scolded as she moved to the floor above. "And Hibiki usually disappears as well! Mama feels so lonely! Ah! But today Hibiki came home early too! I was so happy!" And she kept on ranting until Ichigo was no longer capable of hearing her.

"Why does she find you so cute?" The redhead turned to the cat lying by her side with a giant belly; apparently his dinner was also good.

"There was also a time when you found me cute. Kind of like a week ago." Kishu fake cried.

"You're not that cute. I don't get how you casted your magic on Mom." Ichigo pouted playing with a loose string from her shirt.

"I used the cat eyes."

"Cat eyes?"

"You don't know?" Kishu looked at her with renewed interest. "It's the most super awesome and cool cat power ever! Here! Wait a moment and I'll show you!"

Ichigo watched with interest as Hibiki turned around from, apparently preparing to use his "cat powers?". But when he turned around her hearth started beating faster and cold sweat poured. Her eye twitched and her body shook uncontrollably as she tried to resist. Kishu was using a cat version of puppy eyes and it was sooooooo... 'No! Ichigo, control yourself! No! He not…' He body trembled. Her throat was dry. She had a terrible desire to… "Aaaaaahhhhhh! SO CUTE!" And she couldn't resist any longer.

Sakura was preparing herself for another lonely night, as her husband had called earlier to tell her that he had to stay late at the office, when she heard shouting coming from the lower floor. Quickly letting go of her brush she ran fast back to the living room.

"Ichigo! What…" But the scene she came to wasn't the one she expected to. Ichigo was viciously pulling Hibiki's ears as the poor cat frantically flayed his arms trying to escape.

"If you ever pull that on me ever again, I'll pull all your whiskers one by one!" She evilly whispered the poor creature as it cried helplessly.

Ichigo let Kishu go after that. That had been surprising to say the least. She promised herself never to herself get caught like that again.

Hibiki jumped back on the couch, pawing it while preparing to spend the night.

"Ano… Ichigo-chan, why as Hibiki-chan been sleeping downstairs lately? I though he was sleeping with you?" Sakura that had recovered from the earlier surprise felt compelled to ask.

"We haven't been sleeping together!" Ichigo shrieked as she thought about all the implications her mother obviously couldn't even imagine. "And it was just a small fight. Nothing else. Come on Hibiki." And having said so, picking up a shocked Kishu, Ichigo walked to her room. "Oyasumi."

"Eh? You're going to bed this early?"

"Hai. I'm tired."

Letting Kishu jump from her arms to the bottom of the bed, Ichigo lazily turned off all the lights and crawled into bed. Then she pointed an accusing finger at the stunned cat. "You sleep there! If I see you, if I even notice, that you're just a millimeter closer… Well, make sure you have a pre-arranged funeral." And silently laid back on her pillow.

For a moment Kishu was out of words; but soon his ears perked up in excitement. "Ichigo… Does this mean that..."

"It means nothing! Go to sleep." She cut him before he could continue. But that didn't stop him from wiggling his tail in excitement.

Curling up in a ball, Kishu happily went to sleep.

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"Time to do the laundry." Ichigo claimed lazily.

"Time to do the laundry!" Alien Kishu yelled excitedly.

"Why are so enthusiastic about it?" Ichigo wondered with a yawn. It was way too early to be doing chores.

"We are home alone!" Kishu floated around happily.

"That doesn't mean that you can go around floating like that! I thought that the agreement was that we hang around as master and pet! Why are you floating then?" Ichigo angrily glared at the green alien circling her ceiling lamp.

"Wow, Koneko-chan! Kinky! But you know…" He dropped back to her level easily ducking her angry fists. "There was never an "agreement", if I recall correctly. You simply let me sleep in your bed, which was very nice by the way, and that counts as making up! Now… if you want to be my master then…" But a well-placed kick sent him flying away.

"Gross, Kishu!" She threw him the huge pile of clothes she was carrying. "I can't look at you right now! If you're so excited about it, then you do the laundry. I'll take the garbage out."

The green alien looked at the pile in his hands. "Laundry, uh. Okay! I've seen your mother do it before! I just have to press so random buttons right?" And quickly floated away to the laundry room.

Shaking her head to his silliness, Ichigo picked up the trash bags and exited the house. The garbage corner were the truck would pass was still a bit far from her house.

"There it is." She happily sighed as she saw the corner. Some of the bags were really heavy!

Suddenly, bags falling from her hands, she ran back to the house, garbage forgotten in the middle of the street mere meters away from the right place, as her mind raced back to just a few moments back. "Some random buttons!"

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Her mother would be thrilled when she returned and found the floor shinny clean. Thankfully nothing had been ruined and the washed clothes were happily drying outside.

Despite the huge lump in his head Kishu seemed content enough as he gulped down the lunch they had made together. Although being his first time cooking anything besides cakes, he had cooked a perfect meal, unlike Ichigo who had burned all of her food. It was so frustrating!

But Kishu didn't seem to mind, eating hers and his equally with the same happy face. She could not understand. They were connected right? Weren't they supposed to have similar feelings or to feel similarly? Not like he didn't have his bi-polar moods. He had passed from a near suicide person to the cheerfully alien he used to be in just a few months. And she wasn't any better, truth to be told: she had gone from a cheerful girl to a depressed one in just some days. But she was worried sick right now! And stressed! How could he be so calm?

"Ne… Aren't you worried about Aoyama-kun?" She just bluntly asked.

He didn't seen upset by her question, just surprised by the sudden topic. "Sure I am." He answered still chewing.

"Could have fooled me."

"Look… I'm sure Blondie will take good care of him. And besides, if anything was to be wrong with him for real, we would know." He was looking far more serious now as he spoke to her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, like… pain or something. Not sure what it would be like but you would get some sign definitely." He looked perfectly convinced of it and somehow that reassured her. Aoyama-kun was okay. Missing and sick but he wasn't in immediate danger.

When the phone rang inside she was far more cheerful by the time she picked it up.

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"Yes. Can't I do something nice for you girls once in a while?" Shirogane was talking to his cell as he passed around the lab.

"_Nice things coming from you are always a bad omen._" Zakuro could be heard chuckling on the other side.

"Once in a while is okay. Besides… I'm not even sure that there is something there." The blond smirked from his own side as he finally settled for sitting. His bad cracked as he leaned on the chair; bad sign for someone so young.

"_Ah! So there is something to it! A picnic. Please, Shirogane-san; I think I know you enough._" The girl sound truly amused, while the blond was feeling more and more tired.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then." And he hung up.

"Zakuro-san saw through you?" Akasaka had appeared from a hidden door only seconds prior. The brunet approach the other concerned about his health. The blond had been working himself to exhaustion lately.

"Like I said: I still don't know if there is actually something there! We warned everyone, right?" Shirogane asked from his hole on the comfy chair.

"Yes. Aoyama-san looks fine too. I just checked on him. Are you sure you want him to come?" Keiichiro was curious about his friend's sudden change of heart.

Ryou slowly got up and climbed the stairs to the higher level of the Café. His eyes were sore and his head was hurting. "We haven't found a thing! There's nothing wrong with him. There's no point keeping him in there. Most likely there is some sort of trigger that we can't access here. So there's no point."

"So it's an experiment to find the trigger?" The brunet sighed, as that sounded more like Ryou.

"Something like that."

The blond just wanted a quiet night's sleep so he just said his goodbyes to Keiichiro and quickly scattered for bed. But before he could reach it, someone teleported on his room.

"It has been a week and you haven't tried to contact me yet!" Pai was looking truly disgruntled as he stood proudly on the center of the room.

"Why would I contact you? Are we best buddies or something?" Shirogane wasn't going to let himself be intimidated. He was sleepy, tired, sore and very grumpy.

The purple alien looked him up with a grave expression before sighing in exasperation. "No one told you anything."

The blond just watched the other in confusion. Who was supposed to tell him something? Pai on the other hand recovered quickly, making a quick promise never to trust any important messages to anyone again, and picked the other by the arm. "I found something very concerning that I wish to debate with you. Please accompany me." And without listening to an answer, Pai teleported them away.

Meanwhile, several feet below them, right after the two teens had left some activity had started.

Inside a small room, a teen was curling into a ball near a corner. His hair was tangled and messy from all the times he had pulled it in despair. His eyes were wide open and frenetic as he saw what others didn't. Swinging back and forward he kept muttering the same chant, until it became loud and desperate.

"Who are you? Why? No! I don't want to do those things! No! Please don't! I don't want to do it! I won't do it!"

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**Phoenixica24**** – **I know right! I would love to have him as my kitty! Lol!

**kookies-kisshu**** –**Yeah, I'm totally trying to bug Ichigo with Kishu. And don't worry, good things will come for Kishu soon.

**And for all of you Aoyama haters: You Will Enjoy Next Chapter. I hope :P**


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